LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 



Chap. ... U^SaS». ~h_„ 



i UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 

ON THE 

LIFE AND CHARACTER 

OF 

HENRY BOWEN ANTHONY 

(A SENATOR FROM RHODE ISLAND), 
DELIVERED IN THE 

SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

forty-eighth congress, second session, 

January 19 and 21, 1885, 



THE FUNERAL SERVICES AT PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, 
SEPTEMBER 6, 1884. 



WASHINGTON: 

fi O V E K N M E NT PRINTING OFFICE, 

,88 5 . 



AN ACT to authorize the printing of the eulogies delivered in Congress upon the late Henry 

B. Anthony. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of 
America in Congress assembled, That there be printed of the eulogies delivered in 
Congress upon the late Henry B. Anthony, a Senator from Rhode Island, with an 
account of his funeral, prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on Public 
Printing, twelve thousand copies, of which four thousand shall be for the use of the 
Senate and eight thousand for the use of the House of Representatives ; and the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury is hereby directed to have printed a portrait of said Henry B. 
Anthony to accompany said eulogies ; and for engraving and printing said portrait the 
sum of five hundred dollars, or so much as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated 
out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated. 
Approved, March 3, 1885. 
2 



THE FUNERAL SERVICES, 
At Providence, Rhode Island, September 6, 1884. 



Henry Bowen Anthony, the senior Senator from Rhode 
Island, died at his home in the city of Providence September 
2, 1884. Appropriate action was taken by the State and mu- 
nicipal authorities, the Board of Trade, the Press Club, and 
other local associations, and the arrangements for the funeral 
were directed by Colonel W. P. Canaday, Sergeant-at-Arms 
of the United States Senate. 

The funeral took place on Saturday, September 6. The 
national flag hung at half-mast from the flag-staffs of the public 
buildings and of many private residences, and the windows of 
the principal stores were draped in mourning. The city hall, 
the custom-house, the post-office, the United States, State, and 
municipal courts, and several large manufactories, with nearly 
all of the large business houses, were closed at noon, and a 
Sunday quiet prevailed in the central part of the city. 

THE FUNERAL SERVICES. 

The funeral services were held in the First Congregational 
church, on Benefit street. The doors were opened at eleven 
o'clock, and the seats not reserved were soon filled. Among 
those who soon took the seats assigned to them were His Ex- 
cellency Governor Bourn, attended by his staff; ex-governors of 

:; 



4 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

Rhode Island; Baron de Struve, the Russian Minister; United 
States and State judges, the municipal authorities of Provi- 
dence, the faculty of Brown University, the directors of the 
American National Bank, committees of the Mechanics' Ex- 
change, the Providence Press Club, and the employes of the 
Providence Journal. 

At noon the casket containing the remains of the deceased 
Senator was brought from his late neighboring residence into 
the church by six stalwart policemen. They were attended 
by the honorary pall-bearers : Colonel William Goddard, Pro- 
fessor William Gammell, Judge Walter S. Burges, Colonel G. 
H. Browne, ex-Governor C. C. Van Zandt, ex-Governor W. 
W. Hoppin, Postmaster Henry W. Gardner, and Edward H. 
Hazard, esq. A committee of the United States Senate, which 
followed the casket, preceded by Colonel W. P. Canaday, their 
Sergeant-at-Arms, was composed of the Honorables Nelson W. 
Aklrich, Justin S. Morrill, George F. Hoar, Henry L. Dawes, 
Austin F. Pike, Joseph R. Hawley, John R. McPherson, J. 
Donald Cameron, Isham G. Harris, Charles W. Jones, James 
L. Pugh, M. C. Butler, Thomas F. Bayard, and Matt W. Ran- 
som-. With them were General Anson G. McCook, Secretary 
of the Senate ; Isaac Bassett, assistant doorkeeper ; James I. 
Christie, deputy sergeant-at-arms ; Thomas W. Manchester, 
messenger ; Henry A. Pierce, assistant financial clerk ; and 
Ben : Perley Poore, clerk of printing records. Then came 
the relatives and personal friends of the deceased, the special 
committee of the general assembly of Rhode Island, the house- 
hold servants of the deceased, and prominent citizens of Rhode 
Island. 

The remains were met at the door of the church by its 
pastor, the Rev. Thomas R. Slicer, accompanied by the Rev. 



THE FUNERAL SERVICES. c 

Augustus Woodbury, pastor of the Westminster church, Prov- 
idence, and the Rev. E. D. Huntley, Chaplain of the United 
States Senate, who preceded the casket down the middle aisle, 
reciting the burial service, while the organist performed ' ' The 
Dead March in Saul." The massive pulpit-front was draped 
with crape, while on the communion table rested a floral cross 
on which was the symbolic anchor of Rhode Island. A sheaf 
of ripened wheat rose from a base of varied flowers, and there 
was a pillow of white roses, while resting on the casket was a 
wreath of rare exotics. 

After the casket had been deposited in front of the pulpit, 
and the pall-bearers had taken their seats, Chester A. Arthur, 
President of the United States, came in by a side door, accom- 
panied by the Hon. George F. Edmunds, President pro tem- 
pore of the United States Senate ; the Hon. Benjamin Harris 
Brewster, Attorney-General of the United States, and the Hon. 
David Davis, of Illinois. 

The services were begun with an original anthem, ' ' What- 
ever My God Ordains is Right," composed for the occasion 
by Mr. Eben Kelley and sung by the quartet choir. What is 
known as the "Boston King's Chapel Service" was used. The 
Rev. Mr. Slicer read appropriate selections from the Scriptures, 
after which the choir sang Senator Anthony's favorite hymn, 
"Lead, kindly light." The Rev. Dr. Huntley followed with a 
fervent prayer, after which the congregational hymn, "Thou, 
Grace Divine, encircling all," was sung. 

Address by the Rev. Augustus Woodbury. 

The Rev. Mr. Woodbury said : 

The silent and secret forces of insidious disease are among 
those mysterious elements of our physical being which seem to 



6 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

baffle human skill. The physician faithfully studies the prob- 
lem, but can only approximate its solution. Death, by slow 
degrees, saps the foundation, and in due time overthrows the 
structure of life. Nature gradually succumbs; the inevitable 
hour approaches with sure steps; the organs of the body cease 
to discharge their functions; the eyes look their last upon the 
faces of dear friends; the spirit exhales, and there is nothing 
left but the rigid form, soon 'to change to dust and ashes. 
When death comes suddenly we who remain are stunned by 
the shock, and cannot make real to our hearts and minds the 
departure of our friend from the scenes in which he was a 
familiar object of our affection and regard. But in the prog- 
ress of long-continued sickness we sadly watch and wait, in the 
anxiety of a protracted suspense, the fond eye of love catch- 
ing the glimpse of every favorable symptom, hoping against 
hope, or noting, with quick and sympathetic recognition, the 
gradual failure of the physical powers, till the fatal change 
comes and leaves the heart bereaved. 

All this we say is the Providential ordering, and we submit 
to the decrees of that Almighty Power which joins with its 
action the designs of infinite wisdom and the exercise of infi- 
nite love. To the sufferer himself who is obliged to feel that 
death cannot be averted, although its coming may be some- 
what delayed, the experience is not without its compensations. 
Human intelligence cannot devise a remedy, but Divine Provi- 
dence furnishes an alleviation in the training of character. 
Patience, courage, trust, obedience, are cultivated in the soul. 
"Not as I will" becomes the habitual expression of the 
heart — difficult to say with a full comprehension of its mean- 
ing, but when completely realized, the sublime word of a victo- 
rious faith. To be weak is to be miserable! It is quite true, 



THE FUNERAL SERVICES. J 

for ambition is quenched, energy is dissipated, mental and phys- 
ical activity is stopped, and one is forced to be a spectator 
merely of scenes in which he would gladly have taken part, 
and to confess that his work in the world is done. Yet this 
weakness may be re-enforced by the divine presence and power, 
and the spirit may be lifted up into a plane of life from which 
it can look serenely down upon the weaknesses and pains of 
this mortal state, and prepare itself for the entrance into im- 
mortal life. For death, as we are assured, is not the end. It 
is the transition stage of the soul, the door which opens to the 
spirit the boundless realm of immortality. 

Do I err in saying that to our friend, whose obsequies we ob- 
serve to-day, this discipline of the spirit has been exercised for 
his eternal good? The disease to which he has yielded was 
certain in its progress, and its end was calmly foreseen. He 
could not have deceived himself by any nattering indications of 
temporary improvement. He has himself anticipated the hour 
when his physical life would be extinguished. Perhaps he 
may have preferred to die at the capital; possibly in the Senate 
Chamber itself, the scene of his patriotic labors, in the midst of 
associates who had learned both to honor and to love him. 
For men, who, when living, serve the state with passionate de- 
votion, may fittingly desire to die on the spot which has been 
rendered memorable by their presence — as the soldier would 
wish to fall upon the field of battle, or the man of God would 
wish to be stricken down wearing the harness of his valiant en- 
deavor for the divine kingdom. But, whenever and wherever 
the summons might come, he was ready. With a cheerful 
courage, with a patient submission, with an undoubting trust, 
he has calmly looked forward to the time of his departure from 
the field of active life. For him death had no terrors, for he 



8 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

had schooled himself to that serenity of soul which could not 
be disturbed either in life or death. Not given much to intro- 
spection, certainly not disposed to make public his private and 
personal experiences, he was yet, without doubt, conscious in 
himself of this calm and peaceful state, and thus passed pain- 
lessly and quietly to his final rest. Long has he filled the 
public eye, well has he accomplished the mission of his public 
service, faithfully has he discharged the public trusts com- 
mitted to his care, and now he leaves to his fellow-citizens and 
his fellow-countrymen the record of his diligent and devoted 
labor. We attempt no labored panegyric. We pass no judg- 
ment. The future will determine the value of his service, and 
posterity will pronounce the verdict, "Well done!" To speak 
a simple word of appreciation, before the grave shall shut him 
from our sight, is the office of the hour. 

Mr. Anthony was a genuine child and a faithful representa- 
tive of Rhode Island. Born upon her soil, nurtured in her 
traditions, educated at her university, receiving the highest 
honors she had to give, he thoroughly believed in the perfec- 
tion of her policy and the permanence of her institutions. 
When called upon to defend the peculiar features of her gov- 
ernment, he brought to the task both the ability of an advocate 
and the devotion of a son. In the editorial chair of the journal 
which he controlled, and in his seat in the Senate, he never for- 
got the obligations he owed to the mother who had reared and 
raised him to the position which he occupied and filled. He 
was jealous of her honor and was always prepared to do valiant 
battle for her ancient prerogatives. The arguments which more 
than once he made both in the Journal and in the Senate in 
her behalf may not have wholly convinced those who believed 
that in the changes of the times a more generous extension of 



THE FUNERAL SERVICES. 9 

suffrage and a freer commercial policy were desirable. But no 
one could question the depth of his convictions and the sincer- 
ity of his faith. He was positive that the prosperity of the 
State and the welfare of its people were bound up in the main- 
tenance of institutions which its history had sanctioned. With 
the power of this assurance, he went to his duty with an un- 
flinching resolution to give to it the fullest ability he could 
command. This element of strength is not to be lightly valued 
in making up the estimate of his character. 

But the claims of his native State were not permitted to les- 
sen his devotion to his country's need. His patriotism was as 
wise and enlightened as it was eminent and marked. Entering 
the Senate at a time when the first mutterings of the storm that 
was to sweep the land were heard, he was prepared with a calm 
courage to face the tempest when it broke. Feeling the full 
sense of the responsibility of the occasion, as a representative 
of the Union, he was fearless and urgent in all measures for the 
defense of free institutions and the preservation of the Repub- 
lic. He never doubted the result of the struggle in its darkest 
days, but cheerfully and bravely wrought on for the achieve- 
ment of a full success. In the days of reconstruction he en- 
deavored so to work that no misfortunes of a similar kind might 
befall. The constitution of the Senate changed. One by one 
his early associates passed away. Some paid the debt of Nat- 
ure. Others were swept away by political revolutions. But 
no revolutions touched his seat or alienated the support of the 
people of his State. Repeated re-elections returned him to his 
Senatorial chair. He became the ' ' Father of the Senate, ' ' 
and as the new members came in they sought both his counsel 
and his friendship. He was elected President pro tempore, and 
with grace and dignity he conducted the deliberations of the 



lO LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

distinguished body which called him to its chief post of honor. 
It was something more than a compliment when the Senate, 
notwithstanding his precarious health, delayed its organization, 
and once more elected him to the office, hoping that he might 
be able to discharge its duties. It was a recognition of his 
worth, and though he was obliged to decline the position, he 
was touched with gratitude and made more conscious than ever 
of the warmth of feeling which his fellow-members cherished 
towards him in their hearts. He was the model legislator of 
the upper branch of the National Congress, not indulging in 
long debate, but always attentive and always present in the 
spirit of conscious duty. His practical wisdom is perpetuated 
in the rule for facilitating the business of the Senate which 
bears his name. 

Public life has many temptations, and there have been men 
in public station who have thought it not beneath them to 
serve themselves and their own interest while engaged in serv- 
ing the state. It is true that many stories that are bandied 
about in the public press, with too ready an appetite for 
scandal, are gross exaggerations. In the fierce light that beats 
upon official station peccadilloes become crimes. Of these, in- 
deed, we condone nothing, we excuse nothing. But partisan 
zeal may sometimes put a wrong construction upon innocent 
motives and acts. Happily for ourselves, we have no need to 
speak here with bated breath. For honor has followed merit 
and the laurel bears no blighted leaf. Of the value and hon- 
esty of Mr. Anthony's public service there has never been the 
slightest question. No breath of detraction ever tarnished the 
luster of his well-earned public fame. He did not seek or use 
his office for private gain or personal emolument. If he did 
not rise — or even aspire to rise — to the summit of the highest 



THE FUNERAL SERVICES. \ \ 

statesmanship, he yet allowed no one to surpass him in the sin- 
gleness of his purpose to advance the interests of his State and 
to promote the welfare of his country. His stainless patriot- 
ism and his unsullied public service are known of all men. 
They are as creditable to the people of our Commonwealth as 
to himself. The representative reflects the character of his 
constituents. If the fountain of public virtue be pure, the 
stream cannot well be turbid. 

It seems but commonplace to speak of Mr. Anthony's lite- 
rary attainments. Accepting journalism as his profession, he 
rapidly carried the paper which he edited to the foremost rank. 
Soon after he took charge of it, there came on a period of great 
public disturbance, when the safety of the Commonwealth 
really trembled in the balance. He gave such direction to 
public sentiment and such encouragement to the cause of pub- 
lic order as to merit the generous recognition of his labors 
which his fellow-citizens were glad to give. With a clear, 
incisive, direct style of composition, he brought to the daily 
discussion of current events and public measures the ample 
stores and full equipment of a well-furnished mind. He bright- 
ened the columns of the Journal with delicate humor and lam- 
bent wit. When indulging in satire, he carried in the velvet 
scabbard of his well-turned periods a sword sharp as the 
scimiter of Saladin. In the consideration of graver themes he 
exhibited a cogency and vigor which revealed the strength of 
an original and carefully-trained intellect. If one should meet 
him in controversy, it were well to see that there were no weak 
or unguarded places in the joints of the armor. For his keen 
eye was sure to find them and his trenchant blade would be 
thrust home with fatal result. His election as governor did 
not take him from his daily labor, while he neglected no public 



12 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 



duty. During the intervals of relief from his official labors at 
Washington, even when aided by the graceful and accom- 
plished scholar who now presides over the University of Mich- 
igan he was still active in editorial work. It was not till the 
advent of his late associate, whose recent death was like the 
loss of his right arm, that he may be said to have relinquished 
the management of the Journal. Its columns were enriched by 
frequent contributions from his ready pen. After Mr. Daniel- 
son resumed control, the daily mail brought to the office the 
letter which he found time amidst engrossing cares to write. 
He loved the Journal, for it was his offspring. 

His fellow-Senators will in due time bear witness to the 
excellence and variety of these literary gifts. In a larger field, 
on a more conspicuous stage, the same qualities of mind and 
heart were displayed. He did not often speak at length. It 
would be far from his habit to occupy an entire session with 
prolonged address. But when he spoke it was from a thor- 
ough knowledge of his subject, and in pregnant and weighty 
words. His long experience and his accurate acquaintance 
with public affairs gave him a commanding influence. He was 
well entitled to the respect and attention with which he was 
always heard. His work in the committee-room was thorough 
and efficient, and the public measures which he brought to the 
Senate, well digested and prepared, were accepted as the con- 
clusions of one who knew well the true character and purpose 
of national legislation. 

In one department of public speaking he certainly excelled. 
The memorial addresses which from time to time he deliv- 
ered in the Senate are among the finest specimens of elegiac 
oratory to be found in our language. In this he discharged no 
perfunctory duty. Speaking from the heart, with a delicate 



THE FUNERAL SERVICES. 13 

appreciation of character, with a marvelous felicity of diction 
and facility of expression, with a complete and clear conception 
of the gravity of the occasion, he uttered the sincere sentiments 
of brotherly affection and .friendly regard. Of these the three 
addresses which he made on the death of Senator Sumner are 
pre-eminent. It became his duty to deliver to the authorities 
of Massachusetts the body of the deceased statesman. I have 
been told by the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate, who accom- 
panied the committee to Boston, that Mr. Anthony was not 
informed till reaching the frontier of the State of what was 
expected of him. Amidst the noise and turmoil of the rail- 
way journey he composed in his mind the brief but touching 
address which deserves to be inscribed on the imperishable 
bronze. It was the grateful expression of profound feeling 
when, in committing to the governor of our neighboring Com- 
monwealth the mortal part of her honored son, he further 
said: 

The part which we do not return to you is not wholly yours to receive, nor altogether 
ours to give. It belongs to the country, to freedom, to civilization, to humanity. 

The heart of the man spoke from the tongue, and when on 
other occasions he addressed the Senate in eulogy of the friends 
who had fallen by his side, we may well believe that his whole 
being was stirred by the warm emotions that found expression 
on his eloquent lips. 

Glimpses of his inner life are thus vouchsafed to us. And if 
we were permitted here to enter into those sacred precincts, 
where personal and private sorrow has its home, there would 
be a full revelation of kindness, gentle consideration, fraternal 
love, generous helpfulness, loyal friendship, and uplifting faith. 
An early sorrow touched our friend soon after he had entered 
upon his public career. There is no doubt but that it tinged 



14 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

all his subsequent years. For though in social intercourse he 
was a most genial host, an ever- welcome guest, a delightful 
companion, "and the center of a charmed and charming circle of 
friends, there was still the unseen presence of a melancholy 
which checked the exuberance of his spirits. It was the minor 
chord in the harmony of his life. It is not for me to dwell 
upon the theme. Those who have through life felt the warm 
contact of his love, who have experienced the joy of his 
friendship, who have shared his confidence and secured his 
esteem, carry in their hearts the fervent, grateful apprecia- 
tion of his virtue, and will long cherish the memory of his 
worth. Those who were associated with him in the common 
duties and labors of humanity, those who were employed by 
him in the conduct of his chosen occupation, those who for 
many years have looked, upon him as a master and leader in 
their business, will acknowledge the justice and honor with 
which every detail was observed, the fidelity with which every 
obligation was met, and the thoroughness with which every 
task was performed. Three-score years and ten have nearly 
passed. The heavy burden has been laid down. The weary 
body is at rest. The busy mind has transferred its activity to 
another sphere of being. The spirit is with its God. 

Mr. Anthony has seen in the Senate a generation of states- 
men pass away. He has seen a new generation come upon the 
stage of public life. Is the past better than the present? As 
we bid farewell to those who vanish from our sight, have we 
no word of welcome to those who are pressing forward? We 
grieve over the death of men who we hardly thought could be 
spared. We look around to see who are to take up and carry 
on the work which they have been doing. A pillar of the 
state has fallen, and as we look upon the fragments we fear 



THE EUNERAL SERVICES. T r 

that the structure is weakened. But the Republic, bereaved 
afresh of one of its most trusted and trustworthy counselors, 
still lives. Divine Providence finds its agents and instruments, 
and by the inspiration and help of the Divine presence the 
blessed results for humanity will be attained. I cannot more 
fittingly close this address than in Mr. Anthony's own 
words : 

When I recall those whom I have seen fall around me, and whom I thought neces- 
sary to the success, almost to the preservation of great principles, I recall also those 
whom I have seen step into the vacant places, put on the armor which they wore, lift 
the weapons which they wielded, and march on to the consummation of the work which 
they inaugurated. And thus I am filled with reverent wonder at the beneficent order- 
ing of nature and inspired with a loftier faith in that Almighty Power without whose 
guidance and direction all human effort is vain, and with whose blessing the humblest 
instruments that He selects are equal to the mightiest work that He designs. 

After the address a congregational hymn was sung, and the 
benediction was pronounced by the Rev. Mr. Slicer. The re- 
mains were then taken to the Swan Point Cemetery, followed 
by a long procession of carriages, and were there entombed. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE. 
Monday, January 19, 1885. 



THE PRAYER. 

The Chaplain, Rev. E. D. Huntley, D. D., offered the fol- 
lowing prayer: 

Let us pray. Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we come 
again to worship before Thee; and we pray that Thou wilt so 
dispose our minds that the words of our mouth and the med- 
itation of our hearts may be acceptable in Thy sight. Our 
iniquities have separated between us and our God; and that 
we are at all tolerated as worshipers in Thy presence is another 
proof of that long suffering which ages ago was proclaimed as 
one of the distinguishing characteristics of Thy nature. 

Thou art He by whom kings reign and princes decree 
justice. Thou art pleased to carry out Thy purposes in no 
small part by the governments which men, under the direction 
of God-implanted impulses, have established throughout the 
earth. One of these governments is represented in this Cham- 
ber, and we pray that the legislation of this body may be so 
under Thy control that the history of the nation, so far as may 
be learned by the proceedings here, may show us striving to 
become a people whose God shall be the Lord. 

We are this day to be reminded of the uncertainties of life. 
Members of the Senate shall rise in their places to honor the 

17 



I 8 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

memory of the distinguished dead. They shall recount his 
virtues; they shall emphasize the intellectual and moral char- 
acteristics which eminently fitted him for the high position he 
occupied so long and with such credit to himself and to the 
country; and we humbly pray that this recital may stir us 
up to such a consecration of our talents as shall develop an 
absolutely faithful service to the nation for the days that are 
to come. 

And do Thou help us so to spend the few days which remain 
to us upon the earth that the discriminating eulogist may pro- 
nounce upon our personal and political career, as he in candor 
must this day pronounce upon the career of him we mourn, the 
benedictions of a grateful and appreciative country. 

And, more than this, may the services we shall be able 
humbly to render to the nation be impelled by such a desire 
to please the nation's God that, while men shall speak well 
of what has been, it shall please Thee to pronounce blessings 
upon us during the ages yet to be. We ask it in the name of 
Him who is the resurrection and the life. Amen. 

Mr. Aldrich, of Rhode Island. In accordance with previous 
notice, I offer the following resolutions and ask for their pres- 
ent consideration: 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow of the death of Henry 
J'.. Anthony, late a Senator from the State of Rhode Island. 

Resolved, That the business of the Senate be now suspended, to enable his asso- 
ciates to pay proper tribute of regard to his high character and distinguished public 
services. 

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate communicate these resolutions to the 
House of Representatives. 

Resolved, That, as an additional mar;; of respect to the memory of the deceased, the 
Senate do now adjourn. 



REMARKS BY MR. ALDRICH, OF RHODE ISLAND. 



*9 



Remarks by Mr. Aldrich, of Rhode Island. 

Mr. President: He who was here the senior in service, and 
first in the affections of his associates rests in 

The lone couch of his everlasting sleep. 

His great heart with all its attractive qualities has ceased to 
beat. His stalwart form, so recently instinct with strength 
and life, is crumbling in the dust. 

He who has so often lighted up with the touches of match- 
less eloquence the character of others is no more. Suffering 
from a sense of personal loss which is beyond expression, and 
from the sorrow of separation from a wise councilor and faith- 
ful friend, I despair of rendering an adequate tribute of praise 
to his memory. 

Henry Bowen Anthony was born at Coventry, Rhode 
Island, April i, 1815. His ancestors had for more than a 
century and a half resided on Rhode Island soil. His father, 
William Anthony, and his maternal grandfather, James 
Greene, were Quakers. His father was a cotton manufacturer, 
and the establishment of which he was the manager was the 
third of its kind erected in the State. 

William Anthony was a man of strong character, greatly 
respected by his neighbors, and it is easy to trace the influence 
of his wise teachings and watchful care in the future character 
of the son. The latter was, in his early life, imbued with the 
doctrines of the Society of Friends, which left their impress 
on his nature, developing that gentleness of manner and love 
of peaceful methods, that strict integrity and conscientious 
devotion to duty, which were the most striking traits of his 
character. 



20 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

He received a preparatory education at a private school in 
Providence, and entered Brown University in 1829. At college 
he had the benefit of the teachings of the distinguished Dr. 
Wayland, then president of the university. After his gradua- 
tion, in 1833, he entered the office of his brother in Providence 
with the intention of engaging with him in the business of 
manufacturing. He remained there five years, spending, how- 
ever, a portion of his time in the prosecution of his business at 
Savannah, Georgia. At this time he was a casual contributor 
to newspapers and magazines, and a poem written by him 
during his stay in Savannah attracted considerable attention. 
We can readily imagine that he found literary work more con- 
genial to his tastes than the exacting demands of a business 
life. 

Mr. Anthony first became connected with public affairs as 
a journalist. In 1838, at the age of twenty-three, without pre- 
vious training, except as an occasional contributor of literary 
articles, he assumed the editorial charge of the Providence 
Journal. He accepted the position at the request of a kins- 
man, who was then the proprietor of that paper, to fill a va- 
cancy, and with the understanding that the arrangement was 
to continue only for a few weeks; but the connection thus 
made did not cease until the day of his death. His success as 
an editor was instant and marked. The time at which he took 
charge of the Journal was one of great political excitement in 
Rhode Island. The bitter struggle which was then going on 
to change the government of the State for the avowed purpose 
of securing an enlargement of the suffrage brought the con- 
testants to the verge of civil war. 

In this contest, Mr. Anthony, who, when a young man, as 
in later years, was conservative in his instincts, naturally took 



REMARKS B Y MR. ALDRICH, OF RHODE ISLAND. 2 I 

the side of "law and order." The triumph of the party to 
which he was attached was largely due to the vigorous and in- 
cisive advocacy of the Journal under his control. His brilliant 
leadership attracted some of the brightest and best men of his 
State to his support. The members of the party which he led 
with such consummate ability were prompt to acknowledge 
and to show their appreciation of the invaluable service which 
he rendered their cause. The conduct of the Journal in 
this controversy established Mr. Anthony's reputation as a 
journalist, which then, and as long as he was actively engaged 
in the exercise of the profession, extended far beyond the 
limits of his own State. In the midst of a political conten- 
tion of unsurpassed virulence he was never tempted by the 
impetuosity of youth nor driven by the malevolence of per- 
sonal attacks, to write a sentence or utter a sentiment which 
would not bear the test of his maturer judgment, or which his 
friends would prefer should be erased or forgotten. 

He was best known for the vigor and ability with which he 
wrote of political affairs, both State and national, and for his 
brilliant and genial satire; but the native dignity and courtesy 
of the man were manifested in the grace of style and ornate 
eloquence which distinguished all his literary workmanship. 
With a strong love for his profession, he had all the faculties of 
the ideal journalist — that of ready, clear, and forcible writing; 
of prompt decision in emergencies, combined with fair and 
temperate judgment; of wise choice in his associates and sub- 
ordinates, with the cordial and friendly spirit of appreciation 
which secured their warm zeal and co-operation. 

There was nothing labored in his work. He was an exceed- 
ingly rapid as well as an industrious writer, and has been 
known to keep four expert compositors busy in setting his 



2 2 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

manuscript. For years he performed the greater part of the 
editorial writing for the Journal, and even after his election 
to the Senate was for a long time in the habit of sending to 
the paper his daily contribution. To his latest day he kept 
up the habit of writing for its columns, and did not abandon 
it even under the pressure of enfeebling illness. His last 
paragraph, contributed a few days before his death, was a 
friendly notice of an acquaintance, and his last suggestion in its 
management was a request to spare a political enemy. The 
Journal was always the object of his affectionate care. His 
supervision of its columns was constant and close, and the 
suggestion that he should relieve himself of its responsibility, 
after the sudden death of his trusted associate, Mr. Danielson, 
under whose editorial management its reputation has been 
ably sustained and its sphere of usefulness enlarged, moved 
him to the expression that he would as soon think of parting 
with a child. 

As a journalist Mr. Anthony was vigorous in controversy, 
and dealt in hard and sharp blows when he felt they were 
needed; but it was a characteristic of his temper as well as the 
secret of his success that he never indulged in unnecessary con- 
troversy or yielded to the temptation of being satirical merely 
for the sake of showing his skill. He never descended to 
abuse; and there was a kindly element in his keenest satir_ 
which robbed it of half its severity. His opponents always 
felt that they were dealing with an antagonist who would take 
no unfair advantage. His style of argument in the discussion 
of important subjects was remarkably clear and simple, and no 
one was ever at a loss to understand what he meant, or was at 
fault in following his train of thought. 

In his later years he took special delight in writing on local 



REMARKS BY MR. ALDRICH, OF RHODE ISLAND. 23 

topics in a spirit of genial humor and with all the graces of a 
true Addisonian style. His simple tributes to the memory of 
friends were marked with the same feeling eloquence which 
distinguished his elegiac orations in this Chamber. For many 
years Mr. Anthony was the Providence Journal. His individ- 
uality and his intellectual not less than his political influence 
made it the center of the intellectual life of Rhode Island, and 
attracted to it the contributions of the brightest minds in the 
State. 

It is perhaps not too much to say that no paper in the coun- 
try outside of the metropolitan journals had a higher reputa- 
tion than the Providence Journal while Mr. Anthony was its 
editor, and that it was merely the limitation of its sphere that 
prevented him from being ranked in influence as a journalist 
with his great contemporaries of that remarkable era in Amer- 
ican journalism. The volumes of the Journal while under his 
direction constitute his most conspicuous monument. 

In 1849 Mr. Anthony was the nominee of the Whig party 
for governor of Rhode Island and was elected. His admin- 
istration was successful, and he was re-elected in 1850, but 
declined a nomination for a third term. 

Governor Anthony's position as a political leader in Rhode 
Island was then assured. The confidence of her people in his 
capacity and sagacity continued in a marked degree, and it was 
manifested in 1858 by his election to represent the State in the 
United States Senate. This office he assumed on the 4th of 
March, 1859, an( ^ by the uninterrupted favor and generous faith 
of his constituency, shown by five successive elections, he 
retained it for more than twenty-five years, until he was the 
oldest Senator in service and long after all his early associates 
had left this Chamber. 



24 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

Entering the Senate in the full vigor of early manhood, he 
was splendidly equipped by nature and education, by a care- 
ful study of political history, and by an intimate knowledge 
of the science of government for the responsible duties of his 
high station. At this time the shadows of the approaching 
"irrepressible conflict" which was soon to involve the country 
in war had fallen upon the Capitol. Elected as a Republican, 
the first who was not openly allied with the Abolitionists, his 
conservative tendencies did not prevent his taking the earliest 
opportunity to attest his devotion to the cause of liberty. 

To recount the events in which Senator Anthony during 
the years of his service was a participant, or of which he was 
a witness, would be to recite the history of the country for its 
most interesting and important period. I cannot, however, for- 
bear an allusion to his valuable services during the critical years 
of the late civil war. In this momentous crisis he brought to 
the discharge of his important duties in the Senate, and as a 
trusted counselor of the Executive, great good sense, sound 
nerves, a clear, cool judgment, a courage never dismayed by 
disaster, and a loyalty and patriotism equal to any sacrifice or 
emergency. We have, as a people, justly bestowed our highest 
honors upon the military heroes who at that time rendered 
conspicuous service to the country, but it may be doubted 
whether we have properly estimated the influence and services 
of those who in the national councils shared the responsibility 
of the great contest. 

Measured by the length of time employed, Senator An- 
thony's greatest labors while a member of this body were on 
the Committee on Public Printing, of which he was the chair- 
man for more than twenty-two years. During this period, and 
largely through his influence, the extravagant and corrupt 



REMARKS BY MR. ALDRICII, OF RHODE ISLAND. 25 

system of contract printing was abolished, a national printing 
office established, the publication of debates transferred from 
private hands to the Public Printer, and economical reforms 
in the manner of purchasing paper and other supplies were 
initiated. He sought, unsuccessfully, to restrict the public 
printing to the legitimate demands of the various govern- 
mental departments, and to prevent the publication for popular 
distribution of large and expensive editions of works of 
questionable value. He also endeavored, with equal lack of 
success, to make the Congressional Record what it purports to 
be, a faithful transcript of Congressional proceedings, and to 
prevent its "leaden columns" from being weighed down by 
the insertion of speeches which were never spoken. 

Senator Anthony served from 1863 to his death on the Com- 
mittee on Naval Affairs, of which he was for many years the 
senior member. He was familiar with the condition and wants 
of the Navy, and was greatly interested in promoting all meas- 
ures which promised to add to its efficiency. Meritorious offi- 
cers always found in him an earnest advocate and firm friend. 

Senator Anthony was elected President pro tempore of this 
body in March, 1863, and re-elected in March, 187 1, serving 
for four years. In this position he displayed rare abilities as a 
parliamentarian and presided over the Senate with grace and 
dignity. In January, 1884, he was again elected, but, "with a 
heart overflowing with gratitude," felt obliged to decline, as 
the state of his health warned him not to assume any labors 
that he could honorably avoid. 

Senator Anthony never consumed the time of the Senate 
in useless discussion, but on the rare occasions when he par- 
ticipated in debate his remarks were characterized by both 
clearness of statement and soundness of argument. His me- 



26 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

morial addresses, in which he rendered graceful and grateful 
tribute to the memory of departed Senators, are accepted as 
models of perfect taste, and are marked by an elegance of style 
and a spirit of kindly but just criticism which command uni- 
versal admiration. Ranking with these in grace of style are his 
address at the completion of the equestrian statue of General 
Greene near the Capitol, which owes its existence to his exer- 
tions; his speeches on the occasion of the presentation by the 
State of Rhode Island to the National Government of the 
statues of Roger Williams and General Greene, and his remarks 
in favor of an appropriation for the restoration of the monu- 
ment which marks, the last resting-place of the Chevalier De 
Ternay, at Newport. 

As a Senator he applied himself steadfastly to the absorbing 
duties which crowd a senatorial life, never neglecting any 
appeal or demand from his constituents. No man had a more 
exalted idea of the dignity and importance of the senatorial 
office than he ; and none was more careful to preserve intact its 
time-honored privileges and prerogatives. He was inflexibly 
opposed to all innovations on established precedents in modes 
of procedure, and was accepted as authority on all matters 
pertaining to senatorial etiquette. He held a position of hon- 
orable and commanding influence among his associates in the 
Senate and in the councils of his party. 

He was by nature incapable of doing a mean act. With a 
high sense of political and personal honor, no narrow influences 
ever controlled his political action. Living at a time when 
few reputations escaped attack, it is a matter for congratula- 
tion that his long public career closed without a stain upon 
his honor and without the breath of suspicion resting on any 
of his official acts. Neither foes nor rivals ever ventured to 
question his uprightness or his strict integrity. 



REMARKS B Y MR. ALDRICH, OF RHODE ISLAND. 2 J 

Senator Anthony was a devoted son of Rhode Island, proud 
of her institutions, fond of her traditions, and familiar with 
every phase of her not unglorious history. With uncommon 
solicitude he had watched her wonderful industrial growth and 
intellectual development. For half a century he had been 
more influential than any other of her citizens in molding 
public sentiment and directing the policy of her people ; and 
as the acknowledged leader of the dominant party in the State, 
his influence in political matters was, for a large portion of 
this time, controlling. He implanted and nurtured a patriotic 
spirit in the hearts of her sons, which will continue to bear 
fruit in perpetual remembrance of his example. 

In every forum and on every occasion, whenever her institu- 
tions were assailed or any principle dear to her people brought 
in question, he became her advocate and defender, using even- 
weapon of offensive or defensive warfare with all the skill of 
a veteran and all the enthusiastic ardor of a youthful recruit. 
He was impelled to this service rather by the promptings of 
affection than the demands of duty. This engrossing love for 
his native State was his grand passion, and to serve her inter- 
ests with fidelity was the one undeviating purpose of his life, 
dominating all circumstances and surroundings. He never, 
however, found his intense loyalty to his State in conflict with 
his duty as a Senator of the United States. 

His exceptional success as a political leader, in a community 
where many ambitious and able men were disposed to dispute 
his ascendency, did not depend alone upon that esteem and 
confidence of his fellow-citizens which is the natural reward 
ibr devoted services. He had the faculty of forming a correct 
judgment of the character and capacity of those with whom he 
came in contact, and there was a subtle charm in his nature 



2 8 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

which appealed strongly to the sensibilities of others, attracting 
men of the most diverse characteristics and attaching them 
firmly to himself and his fortunes. His manner was always 
conciliatory ; his temper was never impulsive, and his persist- 
ence rarely assumed an aggressive form. He persuaded and 
prevailed more by the moderation of his spirit than by the 
vigor and comprehensiveness of his understanding. He was 
faithful to his friends, clinging fondly to old companions and 
associations ; but this did not prevent his prompt recognition 
and appreciation of the new men, with special qualities for 
leadership, whom changing circumstances brought into promi- 
nence. 

He was a zealous party man, but he never used the patronage 
or power of official station to advance his personal interests. 
When required to decide, as he often was, upon the compara- 
tive merit of aspirants for political preferment, he invariably 
made fitness and a capacity to advance the public welfare, the 
only standard of judgment. 

His associates here can hardly fail to speak with warmth of 
his striking personal characteristics; of the genial and gracious 
presence — in manner and essence that of a gentleman — which 
has so long adorned this Chamber. Here he was faithful in 
his attachments, tolerant of his opponents; and the unusual 
sweetness and uniformity of his temper endeared him to all 
with whom he came in contact. He never practiced the arts 
of the demagogue, but he had a strong attraction for all that 
was real, genuine, and manly, and an instinctive dislike for 
shams and everything like cant or hypocrisy. He detested 
display and pretension, and shrank from notoriety. He had 
an inexhaustible fund of human gentleness, which made him 
naturally courteous and amiable ; but his courtesy and polite- 



REMARKS BY MR. ALDRICH, OF RHODE ISLAND. 29 

ness never offended by taking the form of condescension. He 
was considerate of the feelings and comfort of others ; quick to 
discover and commend merit. His nature was cast in finest 
mold — 

His life was gentle, and the elements 

So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up 

And say to all the world, This was a man ! 

He was a strong man mentally and physically, but no dis- 
proportion marred the symmetry of his character, and no 
irregular outlines called attention to the strength and beauty 
of the structure. 

His conversation abounded in simple and delightful charms, 
and he was a favorite in every social circle. His hospitality 
had all the elegance of that of a gentleman of the old school, 
and his house in Providence was always the attractive center 
of a circle of brilliant men and women. 

It was painfully evident when Senator Anthony last at- 
tended the sessions of the Senate that death had marked him 
for its victim; and no one knew this better than himself, for he 
had been informed by his physician as early as April, 1883, of 
the fatal character of the disease from which he was suffering. 
Returning to his home in April last, he proceeded with perfect 
composure to set his house in order for the great change. 
During the months which followed he awaited the dread sum- 
mons with a patience and philosophic calmness which deeply 
impressed all those who were about him. With the slow 
wasting of his physical powers there was no visible impair- 
ment of his mental faculties. The letters written by his own 
hand during this period had all the peculiar grace and charm 
of style which made him master of the epistolary art. 

He was singularly reticent even to his most intimate friends 



30 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

in regard to his inner being, but whenever the uncertain ten- 
ure of his life was mentioned he always manifested a spirit of 
humble submission to Divine will, and would say, "God's time 
is best." In the face of death his courage never faltered; and 
the lessons of faith which had been taught him by a Christian 
mother were never forgotten. "He had," to use the words of 
his friend, Rev. Mr. Woodbury, in his eloquent funeral dis- 
course, "schooled himself to that serenity of soul which could 
not be disturbed either in life or death." At his home devoted 
friends and relatives ministered to his comfort, and the ablest 
medical skill sought by the use of every remedy known to 
science to stay the progress of the disease, but all their efforts 
were in vain. On the 2d of September last he peacefully sank 
to rest. He was buried from the neighboring church where 
the funeral rites of his beloved colleague, General Burnside, 
had been so recently solemnized. "Twin heirs of fame," 
their precious dust reposes in the same cemetery, and their 
memories are together graven on the hearts of the people of 
Rhode Island. 

His funeral, without pageantry or display, was an appro- 
priate tribute of honor to the distinguished dead. It was 
attended by the President of the United States, a large num- 
ber of Senators, and the official representatives of his State 
and city. 

In the history of the Senate others have served as faithfully 
and as honorably as he whom we mourn, but it is rare that 
length of service unite with a high order of intellect and a 
spotless reputation to form a senatorial career as impressive, 
as instructive, and as patriotic as that which is now closed in 
the grave of Henry B. Anthony. 



REMARKS BY MR. EDMUNDS, OF VERMONT. 3 I 



Remarks by Mr. Edmunds, of Vermont. 

Again, Mr. President, we pause in our consideration of meas- 
ures affecting the material welfare of millions of living beings 
and give the hour to our recollections of our departed friend 
and associate, and to lay upon his tomb our glad tributes to his 
worth and our sad memories of his loss to his friends and his 
countrymen. 

Scenes like this, common as they are, never over the wide 
world lose their interest. Infidel, and pagan, and Christian 
alike celebrate them, and in varying forms and with differing 
hopes and aspirations come to weep over the graves of their 
fellow-men. To all alike the veil that separates the present 
of life from its future is equally impenetrable to the natural 
eye; but to the eye of faith and hope, and, as I think, to the 
philosophic vision as well, there opens a field of view which 
should lead us not to mourn at the death in the fullness of 
accomplished years of those we have loved and respected, but 
rather to be soberly glad for them, who, having faithfully 
filled their space and appointed time and having borne the 
last trial of humanity, have been admitted to the life of the 
mysterious future. We see "through a glass darkly," indeed, 
but our friend and all who have gone before and with him 
do, I believe, see and feel clearly the peace that belongs to 
them who with pure hearts and faithful endeavor have, in 
whatever station, run the race that was set before them. 

The almost twenty years of close intimacy with which Mr. 
Anthony honored me filled me more and more, as time went 
on, with admiration of his character and with strong personal 



32 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

affection. A gentleman of more perfect honor and of more 
perfect kindness of heart, of more catholicity of spirit, of less 
bigotry, of less envy or nncharitableness, or of less self-seek- 
incr I have never known. So knowing him, I could not choose 
but love him. 

He never made a brow look dark, 
Nor caused a tear but when he died. 

His public life was one embracing a period of events as 
stupendous and important as any that can occur in the history 
of nations. Through it all in the respects I have mentioned 
he was almost peerless among his peers. His close associates 
were among the pillars of the nation's fortune. Many of them 
have gone to their reward before him. There were Sumner, 
and Wilson, and Collamer, and Foot, and Johnson, and Wade, 
and Fessenden, and Chandler, and Howard, and Grimes, and 
Howe— these were they who chiefly in the Senate carried the 
nation triumphantly through its great struggle and restored 
it to its broad foundations with the bright, new corner-stone 
of liberty, and they honored him in his place in his party and 
in the Senate, as I now do his gracious memory, as with a 
constant benediction. 

Strongly devoted to his party, he yet -always stood for the 
liberty of individual senatorial opinion and action, and in all 
conferences, when needful, he reminded his colleagues of the 
rule of his party in the Senate that preserves to each Senator 
the full liberty to follow his honest convictions without reproach 
from his fellows. He desired unity of action, but he desired 
still more to "follow right ' because right is right in scorn 
of consequence." He could not believe that "dissimula- 
tion in political action was to be regarded as a public virtue, 



REMARKS BY MR. EDMUNDS, OF VERMONT. 33 

or that when men asserted the dignity of truth their candor 
was to be charged against them as a heinous crime. ' ' In all 
the long trials of the war and in all the time of the difficulties 
and bitterness that followed it I have never heard that he had 
wounded the feelings or incurred the resentment of any gentle- 
man of either party in the Senate. In all contests and disputes 
his gentleness of feeling and manner and his strict observance 
of every courtesy in debate compelled the sympathy and good- 
will of his opponents, if they did not secure their adhesion to 
his views. 

As a speaker his voice was clear and sweet, but his real diffi- 
dence of himself and his fear of consuming time sometimes 
produced a faulty and too rapid utterance. As a writer he had 
marked excellence, and in some departments of composition 
his writings have seemed to me as perfect as any in the English 
language with which I am acquainted. 

The same qualities of mind and heart to which I have 
alluded made him a favorite in the wide social circles of the 
capital. He was everywhere a welcome visitor. He was 
neither scandal-monger nor tale-bearer. He never indulged in 
coarseness or vulgarity, but his conversation ran pleasantly 
along on topics of history, biography, anecdote, and poetry, for 
which last he had a particular fondness. I have often heard 
him repeat favorite passages with a tenderness of feeling and a 
grace of expression that showed how perfectly he sympathized 
with the inmost sentiment of the writer. 

As he has here so often done for the memory of his departed 
friends, we now make our last formal memorial of him. In 
the years that are to come I can only hope for our country that 
all her Senators may have his fidelity and worth, and that those 



34 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 



who hereafter celebrate similar occasions in the Senate may 
be able to speak as truly and kindly of the departed as we now 
do of him. 

He leaves behind him, freed from grief and years, 
Far worthier things than tears, 
The love of friends without a single foe : 
Unequaled lot below ! 



Remarks by Mr. Bayard, of Delaware. 

Mr. President: The list has grown to be long indeed which 
records the deaths of those who have been my associates in this 
Chamber, and among them all, the living as well as the dead, I 
know not one more sedulous, considerate, and impressive in the 
payment of the last marks of sorrowing respect and brother- 
hood to his deceased associates than the worthy gentleman 
whose death induces these remarks. 

To "weep with them that weep" was an injunction little 
needed by Mr. Anthony, whose kindly and sympathetic nat- 
ure found frequent, eloquent, and admirable expression in the 
elegiac addresses delivered by him in the Senate as one after 
another his friends and associates passed in melancholy proces- 
sion before him to the tomb. And now, at last, he also, ripe 
in years and wisdom, has been gathered in the harvest of mor- 
tality by the inevitable hand of the grim reaper. 

As a Senator from the State of Rhode Island Mr. Anthony 
sat in this council chamber for nearly twenty-six years, and 
seldom has any one served so long and so worthily. 

Without the wish or probably the faculty to impress himself 
as a leader among men, yet he was recognized and sought by 
those who were and are leaders as a wise and safe counselor. 
While not participating frequently in debate, few were so intel- 



REMARKS B Y MR. BA YARD, OF DELA WARE. -i c 

ligently observant of the course of public business or wiser or 
juster in their judgments respecting it. 

As a parliamentarian Mr. Anthony excelled, and elected, as 
he frequently was, to be the President/™ tempore of the body, 
his skill in parliamentary law and procedure and in the dis- 
patch of business, accompanied by unfailing courtesy and im- 
partiality, gave him a hold upon the respect of all parties that 
always remained unbroken. 

The spirit of comity, courtesy, and thoughtful consideration 
of others animated him and marked his conduct in the per- 
formance of his duties in this Chamber; and while we who 
were the beneficiaries of these admirable qualities felt our in- 
debtedness, there can be no doubt that his usefulness and capa- 
bility as a representative to render successful and important 
services to his constituents was in turn greatly increased. 

Mr. Anthony was strict and tenacious as a party man, and 
was largely controlled here by his party allegiance, but I never 
knew it to take the form of offense or imputation of a political 
opponent, and I may truly say that in sixteen years of associa- 
tion here I never saw his face darkened by a frown, much less 
disfigured by a sneer. 

A touching and impressive instance of the feeling he had 
inspired among his associates was afforded when, at the com- 
mencement of his fifth term of senatorial service, as he advanced 
to take the constitutional oath, the entire Senate rose and 
remained standing during its administration. 

I knew him well, and relations of steady friendliness subsisted 
between us, unbroken by differences of opinion and political 
association, and it was as a sincere mourner that I followed his 
body to its last resting-place, in the State of his nativity which 
he had served so long and well. 



36 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

We had been sorrowful witnesses here of the gradual decline 
in his health for several years, and the final summons was not 
unexpected by him nor by those who surrounded him. 

In the death of Mr. Anthony the United States have lost 
one of their most experienced and respected public servants, 
the State of Rhode Island a distinguished, valued, and faithful 
representative, and every member of this Senate a genial and 
well-beloved friend. 



Remarks by Mr. Pendleton, of Ohio. 

Mr. President: I bring my tribute of respect and affection 
for our dead brother. 

Senators who had the pleasure of long association with him 
in this body, and that intimate acquaintance which the public 
and private proceedings of the Senate seem always to promote, 
have done and others still will do justice to his life and char- 
acter, to his qualities of head and heart, to his principles and 
methods. Although not always in the association of the 
Senate Chamber, I knew Senator Anthony long and well. 

When he came to the Senate I was a member of the House 
of Representatives. The stirring events which soon followed 
in 1860-61 brought us into contact. The differences of our 
party associations and modes of thought as to the impending 
struggle were very great. They did not divide us; indeed, 
they seemed to bind us closer together, so soon as we fully 
understood that each of us honestly cherished and faithfully 
supported a common purpose to preserve by whatever variant 
methods an "indissoluble Union of indestructible States." 

I soon learned to know how decided were his convictions, how 
resolute his assertion of them, how unbending his will in car- 



REMARKS BY MR. PENDLETON, OE OHIO. 7>7 

rying them into execution. And yet how courteous his man- 
ners and gentle his judgment of opinions and actions differing 
from his own! I soon learned to appreciate those genial qual- 
ities of temper and manner which soften the asperities of 
thought and action dealing with the fate of nations in flagrant 
civil war. 

Time passed. Our intercourse as members of Congress 
ceased. A most agreeable companionship followed, when for 
many years the heats of long, exhaustive summers were es- 
caped in the delights of an unequaled climate at Newport, or 
on the shores of his native Narraganset. There he threw off 
the cares of public life, the harness of party, and was the genial, 
friendly, cultivated, agreeable gentleman, administering to the 
enjoyment of many friends who gathered in that most favored 
region of Rhode Island. 

Again we met as members of this body. The favor of our 
respective party friends assigned us corresponding positions in 
our party conferences; and then I came to know him still better. 
His fidelity to party obligation was inflexible and pronounced. 
His appreciation of a like fidelity among his opponents, his 
candor, and suavity, and honor were equally conspicuous. 

His intellect was strong; his information was large; his 
culture was wide and generous ; his views of public duty were 
fixed; his aims were lofty; his methods were honorable; his 
heart was true and kind; his courtesy never failed. I think he 
never willingly wounded the feelings of any one. He was 
faithful and wise as a committeeman. He was fully conversant 
with the current business of the Senate. He was an admirable 
presiding officer; the very master— -facile princeps — in all ques- 
tions of ceremonial and dignified propriety. 



38 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

The little volume of addresses in which Senator Anthony 
commemorated the qualities of his friends who had died in the 
Senate testifies to the truth of all I have said. 

The style is rich but simple. The taste is faultless. The 
fountain of sympathetic appreciation is exhaustless. The 
judgment is just but kindly. The philosophy is of that calm 
and patient and hopeful faith in which he was born. ' ' There 
is One that doeth all things well ' ' was the pervading thought 
as the great dead fell around him. Even as early as 1874, 
' ' musing on the transitory nature of all sublunary things, ' ' he 
recalls with touching pathos that since his entrance to this 
Chamber every other seat save one had changed its occupant 
and into the vacant places had stepped others, who had put on 
the armor which those who had gone before had worn, lifted 
the weapons which they had wielded, and marched to the 
work which they had inaugurated. 

And thus — 

He exclaimed — 

I am filled with reverent wonder at the beneficent ordering of nature, and inspired with 
a loftier faith in that almighty Power without whose guidance and direction all human 
effort is vain, and with whose blessing the humblest instruments He selects are equal to 
the mightiest work that He designs. 

For twenty-five years he served well his State; and with 
faculties unimpaired, with the duties of life discharged, the 
trusts of life fulfilled, died at the age allowed by the wisdom 
of God and the experience of man as the most fortunate for 
translation to other spheres of existence and duty ; even to the 
last the recipient of the highest honors, political and social, 
which the respect and confidence and affection of its citizens 
could confer. 



REMARKS BY MR. MORRILL, OF VERMONT. 39 

In liis own language I repeat: 

To complain at the close of such a life is to complain that the ripened fruit drops 
from the overloaded bough, that the golden harvest bends to the sickle; it is to com- 
plain of the law of our existence, and to accuse the Creator that He did not make man 
immortal on the earth. 

To him the wondrous portals of the unseen world have 
opened; and perhaps the mysteries of death, revealing, "what 
was and is and is to come," have solved the mysteries of life. 
Faith may disclose to our grateful eyes glimpses of heaven's 
beatitudes, yet when his associates here realize that we shall 
see his face again no more forever ' ' one human tear shall fall 
and be forgiven. ' ' 



Remarks by Mr. Morrill, of Vermont. 

Mr. President: Called, as we so often are, to lament the 
departure of one of our fellow-members, we are prone to feel 
the lesson less bitter from its frequent recurrence and forget it 
as "a tale that is told;" but the prominence here of the late 
Senator Anthony, for a quarter of a century of continuous 
service, lends to the present occasion exceptional interest. To 
me, his senior in age, and attached to him by all the ligaments 
which bind associates in public and private life, the event 
brings a message of admonition peculiarly impressive. In the 
common course of nature the scene would have been reversed 
and my labors should have earliest ended, while he should now 
be here. Truly "we know not what a day may bring forth." 
Almost from my first entrance to the Senate it was my good 
fortune to sit by the side of him whose decease we now mourn, 
and it is almost unnecessary to say that I found my near neigh- 
bor not only a delightful talker but a patient listener, and his 



4 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

occasional wayside conversation, with its full flow of spirits and 
store of anecdote, indulged in tones not drowning senatorial 
debate, made his presence welcome by the same abounding 
attractions which everywhere made him so general a favorite 
in society. His empty chair proclaims the Senate's loss, and I 
feel sure many longing hearts are ready with me to exclaim: 

O for the touch of a vanished hand, 
And the sound of a voice that is still. 

Henry B. Anthony was a man beloved. His character, as 
well as his person, was attractive, and his bearing manly. 
Even those who chanced to differ with him in opinion found 
nothing repulsive in his manner. His ambition was fully sat- 
isfied with being an American Senator, and, having befitting 
intellectual tastes and aptitudes, having a high ideal standard 
for the service, he was careful to maintain the prestige and to 
preserve the traditions and prerogatives of the Senate. He was 
familiar with all of its parliamentary usages and forms, and 
the proprieties of its proceedings, when guided by him, lost 
nothing of grace and dignity. As the President pro tempore of 
the Senate he was thoroughly the master of the rules, wholly 
impartial, and largely contributed to the correct and brisk dis- 
patch of business. His handiwork, known as ' ' the Anthony 
rnle," is likely to be long approved as a method of forwarding 
the daily work of the Senate. In the chair, as everywhere, he 
was a ready man. His mind moved with the same electric 
swiftness that characterized his spoken words. Questions of 
order did not hang fire, and from his prompt decisions an 
appeal was seldom or never taken. 

As the chairman of the Joint Committee on Printing, the 
late Senator, from his practical knowledge, exercised a con- 
stant and commanding influence, and, though not always able 



REMARKS B Y MR. MORRILL, OF VERMONT. 4 I 

to restrain the vote to print documents — the value of which 
often disappears with the revolving year — within the limits 
he judged proper, yet his conservative action was ever deeply 
rooted in the line of economy. The art of printing he esteemed 
as really the "art preservative of all arts," and he had some 
pride in having Government printing done by the Government, 
and better done than it could be elsewhere. This he believed 
to have been successfully accomplished, and we are indebted to 
the late chairman as the promoter of many improvements, until 
at length, more or less under his promptings, the Government 
commands the skill and machinery to produce work in the 
foremost style of typography. 

The services of Senator Anthony upon the Committee on 
Naval Affairs were long and conspicuous. With the exception 
of the late Senator Grimes, of Iowa, whose mastery of all naval 
matters was simply marvelous, -I think he had a more precise 
and thorough knowledge of every vessel and of every officer of 
the Navy than any person not officially connected with its serv- 
ice. He was proud of the "old sea dogs" and of their heroic 
exploits. He could name those competent to command a fleet 
or a squadron, or those whose genius and blood could be trusted 
to conduct a naval battle, and he looked upon a proper navy in 
a large measure as the custodian of the national honor, as well 
as the chief if not all-sufficient arm of national defense. He 
was alert in guarding the high reputation of the personnel of 
the Navy, or in keeping it clear of epauletted barnacles, and no 
officer, when dismissed from the service for worshiping Bac- 
chus instead of Neptune, ever had a fresh opportunity to lose a 
ship or the lives of men by being restored to place through his 
aid. He was full of reverence for our national flag, and to his 



4 2 



LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 



eye the starry banner, when waving from ' ' the mast of some 
great ammiral," appeared in its highest splendor. 

Senator Anthony did not often venture upon extempore 
speaking, though upon emergencies he appeared to lack neither 
fluency nor effectiveness; but his prepared speeches were 
marked by abundant research, vigor of thought, and were 
clothed with all the graces of classical culture. His speech in 
defense of some peculiar features of the constitution of his 
native State, inherited from its colonial origin, displayed the 
full forces of his learning, logic, and loyalty, and Rhode Island 
will look in vain for a defender more intrepid or better 
equipped. 

His memorial addresses, of which years ago he reprinted a 
collated edition, were models of beauty and pathos. Few more 
impressive and appropriate tributes to deceased associates will 
be found in the records of the Senate than the felicitous eulo- 
giums pronounced here by him whose long and honorable 
career has just closed, and whose decease brings us all together 
here as a band of brothers. His discourses on these sad occa- 
sions sometimes seemed to me almost to rob death of its ter- 
rors, and that, heralded to the ' ' unseen world ' ' covered by his 
gracious mantle of testimonials, one would ' ' even dare to die. ' ' 
These utterances were the throbbings of a generous heart, elo- 
quently and conscientiously spoken, and delicately perfumed. 
Thinking no evil, and incapable of malice, he could not have 
a ' ' sterile admiration ' ' for his friends, and when he bid them 
an everlasting farewell he did not fail to decorate them with 
immortelles. 

His brief address to the governor of Massachusetts, as chair- 
man of the committee accompanying the remains of Charles 



REMARKS BY MR. MORRILL, OF VERMONT. 43 

Sumner, was worthy of the "illustrious dead," and will live as 
a happy specimen of spontaneous and genuine eloquence. 

The late Senator Anthony was void of all conceit; did not 
"think of himself more highly than he ought to think;" never 
attempted to offer instruction upon questions he had not fully 
studied; and never pretended to that intuitive genius which 
comprehends all subjects, but he aimed to do thoroughly well 
the work that fell to his lot. Without surrendering cardinal 
principles, he was outspoken and generous in his appreciation 
of the merits of others, whether they were arrayed on this side 
of the Chamber or the other. Though affectionately attached 
to his friends, no asperities of political life invaded his per- 
sonal or social relations. Eloquence in the Senate or a great 
debate, equally with the foremost examples of ancient history, 
lingered long in his memory, and was accounted by him as an 
appropriate and enduring contribution to the renown of his 
country. 

Senator Anthony was one of the proprietors, and for many 
years the chief editor, of the Providence Journal, the leading 
Republican paper of Rhode Island, with an enviable reputa- 
tion throughout the country. The editorials of the Journal 
were bright and scholarly, but, somewhat like those of Thur- 
low Weed, George D. Prentice, and Horace Greeley, generally 
rather short, and noted, as well as extensively copied, for their 
sterling good sense. The editorial profession, which he so 
early adorned, did not fail to tincture his later career, nor fail 
to largely contribute to his public usefulness. In his copart- 
ner, Mr. Danielson, so long as he lived, he found also a gifted 
and most valuable editorial associate, and the Journal securely 
maintained its position as one of the most prosperous and 
influential papers in New England. 



44 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

As a man he never seemed to be deserted by his good genius, 
and never to do or say a foolish thing. All of his speeches, 
therefore, were scarcely less than models of good taste. They 
were never dull, but always crisp and without redundant 
words. His calm judgment, undisturbed by crotchets, to- 
gether with his transparent sincerity, gave to his opinions posi- 
tive weight, and to any discussion where he was a participant 
he brought visible and valuable contributions. 

He was in the first year of his fifth term of service in the 
Senate. This remarkably protracted distinction emphasized 
the abiding confidence and affection of the people of his State, 
and was in harmony with the almost equal love and respect of 
the people of the country at large. It will not be too much to 
say that it was thoroughly merited by his high-toned integrity, 
by his conceded ability, and by his unselfish devotion to every 
public duty. Throughout the long and historic career of this 
distinguished son of Rhode Island, who here survived all of his 
early associates, the world has ever recognized the bearing and 
just proportions of an American Senator, and virtues most 
worthy of imitation. He leaves us without a word he could 
wish to blot. He leaves us with the completed record of a 
useful and blameless life. He faithfully bore his part in the 
Senate during an era of great national events, and history will 
lovingly guard his memory. 



Remarks by Mr. Garland, of Arkansas. 

Mr. PresideT: In the accurate sketch of the life and char- 
acter of Senator Anthony just now presented by his former 
colleague on this floor we have a beautiful picture of a life 
noiseless and of even tenor, but industrious and laborious, 



REMARKS BY MR. GARLAND, OF ARKANSAS. 45 

devoted to good private acts and great public service, and a 
character simple, amiable, affectionate, yet commanding. 

Educated for that most jealous and exacting of all profes- 
sions, the law, his health failing, he embarked in the business 
of newspaper editing. In this broad field of influence and of 
usefulness, in which so many of the first men of our country 
have figured, he maintained, as he did in all things he under- 
took, a high and prominent rank. From this sphere he went 
to the governorship of his State, where he served her so well 
and so faithfully she became not merely attached to him, but 
devoted to him, from that time till he was laid away for the 
long sleep in the dark chamber, in her own bosom. 

Coming to this body as her Senator in 1859, when such men 
as Fessenden, Douglas, Seward, Hunter, Sumner, Toombs, 
Trumbull, Jefferson Davis, Crittenden, and Benjamin were 
honored members of this Chamber, he soon took rank with 
them as a most able and valuable colaborer. Elected for five 
consecutive terms, he rendered longer unbroken service here 
than any Senator in our history save Mr. Benton, of Missouri. 
Mr. King, of Alabama, served longer, but his terms were not 
continuous, while Mr. Sumner had twenty-three years of 
consecutive service. 

While this compliment is so rare, in this case it was well 
merited, for Mr. Anthony was industrious in his senatorial 
work, well instructed in all its details, and faithful to the 

last. 

He rarely engaged in what are called purely political debates, 
but when he did he showed he was equal to the demands of the 

occasion. 

His speeches, made generally with a view of throwing light 
on questions of public policy and aiding in their solution, 



46 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

were plain and simple in their style — "neither affected nor 
elaborate, and remarkable for the absence of all words of 
questionable authority. ' ' 

Well versed in parliamentary law, he was a stickler for 
the enforcement of the rules of the Senate as a means for the 
preservation of order and the transaction of business; and his 
usefulness in this way was on several occasions fully recognized 
by his brother Senators in their selection of him to preside 
over the deliberations of this body. 

Almost from the time I began to take an interest in Con- 
gressional proceedings Mr. Anthony was a well-known and 
distinguished actor in them. From then till very recently, 
to read these deliberations was to become somewhat familiar 
with him. Bight years ago, when I became a member of the 
Senate, he was here, conspicuous and leading, and was then, 
except for the presence of the venerable Hamlin, the father of 
the Senate, as he was so affectionately called by his brothers 
here in the latter days of his service. To me, therefore, the 
Senate seems unnatural without him; it is most difficult to 
realize his absence, and by us all and the country his loss is 
deeply deplored. 

His conduct in life was without parade or ostentation. 
Without pretensions, his movements and acts spoke for them- 
selves, a full exemplification of what Sallust said of Cato: 
Esse, quam videri. 

His manners were attractive to the last degree to those 
who associated with him, and to be thrown with him was to 
sincerely admire him. 

He merited by his public works and by his private virtues the respect and affection 
of his countrymen, and the best wish for his country and his office is that his mantle 
may fall upon his successor. 



REMARKS BY MR. HOAR, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 47 

Remarks by Mr. Hoar, of Massachusetts. 

Mr. President: In paying the tribute of the Senate to our 
senior, the eminent Senator from Rhode Island, it is fitting 
that his State and those who were nearest to him in friendship 
and in length of service should have been first heard. But it 
would be unjust to Massachusetts if her profound sympathy 
with her neighbor and her own sense of public loss did not 
also find expression. No two States in the Union are bound 
together by closer ties than Massachusetts and Rhode Island. 
Their affection was never broken. When Roger Williams 
went out to lay for the first time in human history the founda- 
tion of a State in religious liberty, he retained, undiminished, 
his love for the people he had left behind. He earnestly de- 
sired that the younger Winthrop should become the governor 
of his infant Commonwealth. From that day to this the occa- 
sions have been few and unimportant and temporary in which 
there has been any considerable difference of opinion between 
these sister States. Their character, their interests, their em- 
ployments have been the same. Together their soldiers and 
sailors met danger and victory under Perry and Greene, the 
illustrious captains of Rhode Island. William Ellery Chan- 
ning, who, beyond all other men, has influenced the character 
of Massachusetts in later times, was the gift to her of Rhode 
Island. When the whole structure of her civil society was in 
danger, Rhode Island sought and found her successful cham- 
pion in Daniel Webster. There were no sincerer mourners at 
the grave of Burnside than the citizen soldiers of Massachu- 
setts. No voice spoke the universal sorrow for the death of 
Sumner more affectionately and tenderly than that we miss 
to-day. 



48 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

Mr. Anthony, after having been twice governor of his own 
State, was five times chosen to the Senate for a full term. If 
his life, had been spared, he would have had a longer period of 
unbroken service here than any other person since the Senate 
was organized. Owing to the delay in the admission of Mis- 
souri, Mr. Benton was not elected until late in 182 1. His 
first term ended March 4, 1827. Mr - Anthony served in 
the Senate, in fact, longer than any other person, except Mr. 
Benton. 

I think we may offer him to the judgment of history as the 
model of the character of the Senator as our fathers conceived 
it. Superior, by the length of his constitutional term of office, 
and by his own personal weight, to what is fluctuating and tem- 
porary in the popular sentiment of his State, yet representing 
what is best and most permanent in its character and opinion — 
member of a body whose organization has continued and is to 
continue without a break from the time the Constitution was 
inaugurated until it shall perish, the never broken chain bind- 
ing the remote past to the far remoter future — the Senator 
alone, as his name implies, stands for the principle of seniority 
in the Republic. Mr. Anthony was the depositary of the 
unwritten traditions of this body. He never failed to main- 
tain, so far as in him lay, its authority and dignity. He had a 
wide circle of friends, and was above all others the one most 
welcome guest in the hospitable circles of Washington. But 
his only home was the Senate Chamber. It cannot be doubted 
that he was thinking of his own lot when he uttered that 
touching passage in his eulogy on Wilson: 

Home he had none. No man shared more largely in the affections of the American 
people; no man was more beloved by his immediate constituency; but those pleasures 
which the greatest of American orators placed above all the other immeasurable bless- 



REMARKS BY MR. HOAR, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 49 

mgs of rational existence, above the treasures of science and the delights of learning 
and the aspects of nature, even above good government ami religious liberty, "the trans 
cendent sweets of domestic life," were no more for him. Those relations which nature 
intended for the joy and the rapture of our youth, for the happiness and the embellish- 
ment of our maturer years, for the comfort and consolation of age, had been severed by 
the remorseless shears of fate. No eye grew brighter when he raised the latch that 
held his lonely dwelling; no outstretched arms of wife, no ringing laughter of children, 
welcomed his returning footsteps, when he crossed the threshold over which all that 
had given life, and joy, and beauty to that simple abode, and had lighted it up with a 
glory not of palaces, had been borne never to return. He had nothing left to love but 
his country. 

He was fully able to defend himself and his State and any 
cause which he espoused. No man would attack either with 
impunity under circumstances which called on him for reply, 
as he showed on some memorable occasions. But he was of a 
most gracious and sweet nature. He was a lover and maker of 
peace. When an indignity was by his own political associates 
put upon the great leader of emancipation in the Senate which 
had been the scene of his illustrious service, no man regretted 
the occurrence more than Mr. Anthony. 

And straight Patroclus rose, 
The genial comrade, who, amid the strife 
Of kings, and war of angry utterance, 
Held even balance, to his outraged friend 
Heart-true, yet ever strove with kindly words 
To hush the jarring discord, urging peace. 

Mr. Anthony was a learned man ; learned in the history of 
the Senate and in parliamentary law; learned in the history of 
his country and of foreign countries; learned in the resources 
of a full, accurate, and graceful scholarship. Since Sumner 
died I suppose none of us can be compared with him in this 
respect. Some passages in an almost forgotten political satire 
show that he possessed a vein which, if he had cultivated it, 



5 O L IFE A ND CHA RA CTER F HENR Y B. A NTH ON 3 '. 

might have placed him high in the roll of satiric poets. But 
he never launched a shaft that he might inflict a sting. His 
collection of memorial addresses is unsurpassed in its kind of 
literature. He was absolutely simple, modest, courteous, and 
without pretense. He was content to do his share in accom- 
plishing public results, and to leave to others whatever of fame 
or glory might result from having accomplished them. 

To be, and not to seem, was this man's wisdom. 

Gentle and kindly in his judgments, he could be firm and 
stern when public duty required. He steadfastly resisted 
everything which seemed to him to relax the discipline or 
lower the standard of character in the Navy to whose glory 
his State has so largely contributed. 

He was fortunate in life. He lived and took a great part in 
great historic events in a great age. His senatorial service 
corresponded almost exactly with the term of power enjoyed 
by the great party to which he belonged. He saw the be- 
ginning and the final triumph of the political movement to 
which a race, that, within two generations, will number more 
than thirty millions in this country, owes its emancipation. 
He had his full share in advising and framing the measures 
by which rebellion was subdued and his country saved. He 
had his full share, also, in that great self-control by which the 
restored nation manifested alike its unparalleled clemency and 
its unparalleled integrity, greater in ruling its own spirit than 
in conquering states or taking cities. Through all this, I can- 
not think of an utterance he would wish to blot or a vote he 
would desire to recall. Rcctv, te Cyrc, beatum ferunt, quoniam 
virtuti liicr for/ una conjunct a est. 

He was fortunate also in death. He escaped that sudden 
and unprepared parting against which the church offers her 



REMARKS BY MR. BUTLER, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 5 I 

prayers. He escaped, also, the weakness and decay of age. 
Death came to him without pain and without a shock, while 
his intellectual forces were unimpaired. His life had been 
stainless, honored, useful, happy. He was beloved by his 
associates here, beloved by the people of the State of which 
he was the citizen first in honor and in station, beloved by 
his whole reunited country. 

The great orator and philosopher of Rome declared in his 
youth, and repeated in his age, that death could not come 
prematurely to a man who had been consul. Cicero spake to 
a senate to whom Christianity was unknown and immortality 
but a dream. Surely we cannot mourn as untimely the ending 
of the life of a man who has been five times Senator. To us, 
to whom Christianity holds out its promise of an existence 
continued somewhere, where the virtues developed here shall 
continue and grow, it is matter of high exultation that a soul 
so pure, so lofty, so fortunate, has passed on safely, and without 
a stain, to another stage of being, where 

that, which lived 
True life, lives on. 



Remarks by Mr. Butler, of South Carolina. 

Mr. President: My friendly regard and high respect for 
Governor Anthony began soon after I became a member of 
this body and continued uninterruptedly to his death. Though 
one of the oldest veterans in the service, and many years my 
senior, he was nevertheless accessible at all times to younger 
men, and invariably courteous and kindly. His personal qual- 
ities were so attractive that we were instinctively drawn to him. 
His equanimity of temper, amiability of disposition, dignified 



52 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

and affable demeanor, and cordial social virtues were uniform 
and almost exceptional, so that he was always a welcome guest 
in social life, a genial, companionable gentleman. 

Simple, unaffected, unpretending in his professions, he was 
a most faithful, trustworthy, and devoted friend. We all re- 
member how devotedly attached he was to his life-long friend 
and colleague, General Burnside; how devotedly this attach- 
ment was reciprocated, and what a touching eulogy he pro- 
nounced upon that friend in this Chamber. During my term 
of service here with Governor Anthony we have passed 
through some of the most exciting, acrimonious debates ever 
known in the Senate, and yet I do not remember that one 
expression of bitterness or one word of personal reproach 
toward his political opponents ever escaped his lips. This is 
a oreat deal to be said of any man, Mr. President, who has 
passed through such trying ordeals and irritating scenes, but 
I am sure every one of his brethren of this bod)- will bear me 
out and that it is sustained by the record. I can pronounce 
no higher encomium upon his character as a Senator and 
gentleman. His mental qualities and intellectual attainments 
were as marked and high as his personal attractions. In a 
word, sir, his whole make-up, moral, mental, intellectual, and 
physical, was as completely rounded off with uniform sym- 
metry as any man I have ever known. As gentle and kindly 
in his sympathies as a woman, he was nevertheless as stern, as 
earnest, and unyielding in the discharge of what he conceived 
to be his duty as the most robust nature. 

Our party affiliations and associations threw us on opposing 
political lines; and while he was regarded by his political 
opponents as a staunch and faithful adherent to the party of 
his faith, his partisanship never became so intense or unreason- 



REMARKS BY MR. BUTLER, OE SOUTH CAROLINA. 53 

able as to become offensive to those who differed with him or 
to forfeit their personal regard. I do not think that Governor 
Anthony, in a popular sense, could have been considered a 
party leader. His mental and intellectual organization rather 
led him to the literary and scholarly side of politics. And yet 
it was generally understood by those of us not in the councils 
of his party that in consultation his judgment exercised a com- 
manding influence in determining party policy. In questions 
before the Senate of a non-partisan character, in the conduct of 
business, in the real work of legislation, his well-earned expe 
rience, faithful, conscientious attention to the duties of his high 
station, carried great weight with his brother Senators of all 
parties. 

He rarely participated in general debate, but was always at 
his post of duty, and when he did speak he commanded the re- 
spectful attention of the Senate, and always spoke with effect. 
His last elaborate effort that I remember was in defense oi 
his State, whose institutions and rights he thought had beer 
unfairly criticised and unjustly assailed, and I question if thes- 
is on record a clearer and more convincing exposition of the 
rights and reserved powers of the States of the Union than is 
given in this speech. If he had done no other public service, 
this speech would entitle him to take rank among the ablest 
expounders of the constitutional powers of the State and 
Federal Governments. 

It was my fortune, Mr. President, to attend the funeral cere- 
monies of this venerable and distinguished Senator at his home 
in Providence, and the large attendance from other States, the 
outpouring on that occasion of all classes and conditions in 
that community to do honor to their fellow-citizen and dead 
statesman, bore evidence of how much he was beloved by his 



54 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

neighbors and how highly he was esteemed by his fellow- 
countrymen. It is drawing no invidious distinction to say 
that no Senator has ever gone out of this Chamber to his 
last account more universally respected and lamented than 
Governor Anthony; few Senators ever served a constituency 
longer, and none more faithfully. His long and distinguished 
public career is closed without a shadow to dim its luster or a 
suspicion upon his integrity to mar its completeness. 



Remarks by Mr. Ingalls, of Kansas. 

The service of Senator Anthony in this body exceeded the 
entire period of Republican ascendency, from Lincoln to Gar- 
field—a momentous interval, characterized by unprecedented 
activity of the material, intellectual, and moral energies of the 
nation, and resulting in structural changes in government and 
society. 

It was an epoch of tremendous passions; of vague and indefi- 
nite morality; of frenzied debate; of anomalous statesmanship. 
There were giants in those days, and when the Macaulay of 
another age shall turn to rehearse their history, he will find 
little in our recorded annals to explain the remarkable and 
long-continued prominence of Senator Anthony in his State 
and the country, or the extraordinary influence he exercised 
upon all his contemporaries. 

Without the learning and eloquence of Sumner, the logic of 
Fessenden, the restless industry of Wilson, or the intense and 
relentless energy of Chandler and Morton, he was the trusted 
counselor and companion of all, and was accorded the high- 
est positions of confidence and honor to which a Senator can 
aspire. 



REMARKS BY MR. INGALLS, OF KANSAS. 55 

For twenty-five years Senator Anthony uttered no word 
in debate in this Chamber that is not recorded, but how 
faint and unsatisfactory is the portrait that this will present 
to posterity. Those who recall the melody of his diction 
and the dignity of his delivery will always wonder with re- 
gret that he so seldom spoke who spoke so well; but no 
printed page could record the gentle and benignant courtesy 
which shone in his demeanor and lent a nameless but irre- 
sistible charm to his deportment and bearing; the confident 
courage that despised the paltry arts and the hollow clamors 
of the demagogue; the stainless honor that knew no taint 
of perfidy or guile. 

He was a minister of grace. He never made an enemy and 
never lost a friend. The envy that might have been aroused 
by his early success was averted by the sensitive delicacy of 
his nature; and the jealousy that might have been excited 
by his long supremacy was disarmed by his loyalty to his 
friends, by his fidelity to his convictions, by his unsullied 
integrity, by the temperate restraint of his spirit which no 
heat of controversy could disturb nor any rancor of parti- 
sanship provoke to retaliation unworthy of a Christian and 
a gentleman. 

The entire career of Senator Anthony was one of unique 
and singular felicity. For him fate spared its irony. Nem- 
esis was propitiated. Fortune favored him. Time denied 
him none of those possessions that are regarded as the 
chief requisites of human happiness. He escaped calumny, 
and detraction passed him by. There was no winter in his 
years. He had length of days without infirmity. His ambi- 
tion was satisfied. Honor, health, love, friendship, affluence, 
which so often with capricious disdain elude the most streu- 



56 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF. HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

uous pursuit, attended him as courtiers surround a monarch. 
His life was not fragmentary and unfinished, but full-orbed 
and complete. Death was not an interruption, but a climax. 
His sun was neither obscured nor eclipsed, but followed its 
appointed path to the western horizon. So he departed, and 
above his spirit and his fame abides the enduring covenant 
of peace: 

His memory, like a cloudless sky ; 
His conscience, like a sea at rest. 



Remarks by Mr. Hawley, of Connecticut. 

Mr. President: So much has been said by many who 
knew Mr. Anthony long and well that much speaking by 
me is neither needed nor becoming. 

He was a most devoted, reverent, and obedient servant of 
his State. He was very proud of the trust Rhode Island re- 
posed in him. He was an American, a patriot, a lover of 
liberty and union in every fiber of his being. Submissive 
to the Divine will and fearless of death, he yet wished to 
live, and I think he longed to complete thirty years of 
Senatorship. During the last few months of his life he 
earnestly desired to return to Washington, and could he 
have chosen the place of departure I believe he would 
have selected this Capitol. 

In speaking to the memory of Henry Wilson he said: 

Nor was the occasion of his death inappropriate to his life. It has been lamented 
that the inevitable hour found him away from his home and without the tender minis 
trations of woman. In this regret I do not share. ~ x ~ " :; ~ * Where should the patriot 
statesman whose life has been devoted to freedom die rather than in the Capitol, whose 
uplifted Dome bears aloft the vindicated statue of Liberty? 



REMARKS BY MR. HAWLEY, OF CONNECT/CUT. 57 

In the succeeding paragraph, which the Senator from Massa- 
chusetts has already quoted, Mr. Anthony refers in lines of 
exquisite delicacy and feeling to the circumstances of domestic 
bereavement and loneliness in which his own domestic life was 
a parallel to Mr. Wilson's, and adds: 

lie had nothing left to love but his country. It was proper, then, that he should die 
here, where his greatest work has been wrought; here, where his greatest triumphs had 
been achieved. 

Mr. Anthony possessed a strong, deep, loving nature, 
though not demonstrative or careless of choice, and he grappled 
his friends with hooks of steel. Senators who heard it cannot 
forget the fervor and profound pathos of his lamentation over 
the loss of his beloved and inseparable friend Burnside. 

In some characteristics he gave evidence of the teachings of 
Quaker ancestry, molding a congenial nature. His courtesy 
and gentleness, his pleasing tone of voice, his love of peace, his 
mined wit and humor, his tender poetic sentiment, his fund of 
literary, historical, and political reminiscences made him most 
welcome in many circles of admiring and attached friends here 
and elsewhere. 

His classical education, his reading, and his more than 
twenty years of successful experience as an editor, beginning 
at the age of tw r enty-three, gave him a charming and polished 
style as a writer, of which he has left admirable illustrations in 
many addresses. Of his varied services, and especially of his 
zealous and effective labors during the stormy years of war, 
my seniors in this Hall have spoken. Personally I was nearly 
four years associated with him in that committee of which he 
was twenty-one years the chairman. His society made labor 
agreeable. All sense of drudgery was lost in the pleasure of 
social intercourse. 



58 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

Connecticut will join her neighbor of two hundred and fifty 
years of unbroken friendship in tributes of respect to the mem- 
ory of the distinguished and honored citizen who has gone to 
' ' the sublime equality and sacred fraternity of the tomb. ' ' 

When all things move in what we imagine to be the due 
course of nature, as year after year hurries along, the Divine 
Father greatly mitigates the dread of death. Before one 
reaches the allotted three-score and ten, the time comes when 
he feels that the majority of all whom he could know well and 
love well have gone over to the other side. The sound of a 
tree that has fallen in the forest becomes a familiar sound, no 
longer alarming. The multitude of old and dear friends, who 
are invisible but still very real, occupy more and more of our 
thoughts. Calling our faith and philosophy to our aid, we try 
to believe that it is not death we dread, but dying. We get so 
wear)- of eternal turmoil that in despondent hours we fancy 
that we can almost envy that brilliant soldier of the late war 
whose last words were, " L,et us cross the river and rest in the 
shade. ' ' 

Our friend could not have been surprised by his summons. 
It is a comforting belief, and let us try to indulge it, that he 
is fully at peace in the society of the host of his friends and 
colaborers who have preceded him. 

Said a Greek poet: 

Little it imports 
The dead, I think, if any shall obtain 
Magnificent and costly obsequies ; 
Vain affectation of the living, this. 

But no one has gone from us who would feel a richer joy to 
know that all men speak of him kindly and lovingly. 



REMARKS BY MR. MANDERSON, OF NEBRASKA. 59 



Remarks by Mr. MANDERSON, of Nebraska. 

Mr. President: The eloquent tributes to the noble dead 
whose virtues we extol to-day from those who have been his 
coworkers in the Senate during the eventful years when 
Henry B. Anthony did his full duty here would seem to 
have so fully met the demands of reverence and affection that 
it was not needed that one who so lately came to full personal 
appreciation of his noble qualities should be heard in words 
of eulogy ; yet I cannot resist the opportunity offered me to 
speak of the high esteem in which I held him during the many 
years when to me he was simply one of the most prominent of 
public men, and of how much I came to revere and love him 
when it became my great privilege to know him personally. 

I can never forget the cordiality of the welcome extended 
when I became his associate in the public work to which he 
had brought such high appreciation and advantageous effort; 
the encouraging words and valuable aid given me by the noble 
son of Rhode Island will ever remain in my memory as one 
of its most valued treasures. The mere acquaintance of the 
latter part of the Forty-seventh Congress ripened into some- 
thing stronger during the winter of i883-'84, and when, during 
the last summer, it was my fortune to spend a few delightful 
days with him at Block Island, in the State he loved so dearly, 
and when I saw him surrounded by his neighbors, relatives, 
and friends, an admiring acquaintanceship became a warm 
friendship. 

Coming to the United States Senate in 1859, and serving 
there for the next quarter of a century, Governor Anthony 
was an active participant, if not a leader, in the most important 



60 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

legislative affairs during those eventful years of the Republic. 
He took his seat at the time when partisan spirit and sectional 
politics were at the flood. During the dark and gloomy days 
of the war of rebellion he did his full duty to the country he 
had sworn to protect and serve. His voice was ever raised for 
the cause of the right. He could find no excuses for rebellion 
and did not attempt to palliate treason. Too gentle in nature 
to be fiercely denunciatory of the misguided and misled men 
who were engaged in that which he deemed to be an unholy 
and inexcusable crusade against the dearest and best interests 
of the Republic and a base attack upon the rights of man, yet 
he had none but words of condemnation for their course and of 
strong support and hearty help for the soldiers of the nation. 
Those who wore the blue ever found in him a friend. 

The dreadful conflict over, his shaping hand and controlling 
brain may be seen in the measures of reconstruction and the 
important laws designed to cement a divided nation and bring 
again together the warring States, that they might once more 
dwell in unity and peace. 

Twenty-five years of intelligent, active, painstaking, appre- 
ciative performance of his arduous and perplexing duties! 
How grand the record! There was much during the time 
to perplex and annoy, a great deal of a nature calculated to 
change the patient, loving spirit into one impatient and petu- 
lant, but no colleague in the Senate, constituent in his State, 
or fellow-citizen of Henry B. Anthony ever found such 
change. 

The poet of the early English, grand Geoffrey Chaucer, says, 
"He is a gentleman who does gentle deeds ;" and the life of 
our departed friend is so full of the constant performance of 
such deeds that he made himself of the true gentry and issued 



REMARKS BY MX. MANDERSON, OF NEBRASKA. 6 I 

his own patent to nobility. He did not seem to tire of such 
well-doing; the passing of the years and the coming on of old 
age brought physical change, but "that good gray head which 
all men knew" was ever the servant of the kind heart. He 
seemed to have followed the sound advice of the old philoso- 
pher, and to be able ' ' to resist with success the frigidity of old 
age by combining the body, the mind, and the heart, keeping 
these in parallel vigor by exercise, study, and love. ' ' 

But I do not propose any review of the noble life that has 
gone or to comment upon the valuable lessons that it teaches. 
Others have done it far more profitably than I could hope to 
do. In one official capacity, however, it seems fitting that I 
should speak of the lamented dead. At an early period in his 
life Mr. Anthony assumed editorial charge of the leading 
newspaper of his native State and made the Providence Journal 
a power for good. It was a fitting recognition of his intimate 
knowledge of the printer's craft that prompted the Senate in 
December, 1859, to P^ce him upon the Committee on Print- 
ing. He served continuously upon this committee for nearly 
twenty-five years, and for twenty years of this period he was 
its alert, attentive, accommodating, and efficient chairman. 

During the first year of Senator Anthony's service upon 
the committee, at a time when the political party with which 
he acted was in the minority, investigations w r ere made of the 
contract system under which the printing and binding for the 
Government had been performed. This investigation showed 
so many abuses, so much of favoritism and fraud, that the 
result was the purchase of a printing office, of small size and 
insufficient in its appointments, which grew with the coun- 
try's needs and growth to its present immense proportions. 
In the management of this office, and in its gradual enlarge- 



62 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

ment as the work done there has increased, Senator Anthony 
took a deep interest. 

The busy hive, with its thousands of industrious, intelli- 
gent employes, whose active brains and cleft fingers furnish to 
the world the best public literature it has ever read; with its 
mighty forces, steam and electricity, giving life and motion to 
delicate machinery that seems to think and reason as it per- 
forms its allotted task — this great Printing Office, throbbing 
and pulsating day and night for the public good, stands as a 
mighty monument to the dead Anthony. 

The record of the proceedings in the Senate bear testimony 
to his repeated efforts (unfortunately not often crowned with 
success) to diminish the cost of the public printing by curtail- 
ing the amount and dispensing with masses of official verbiage 
which now swell too many of the public documents. He had 
a true man's hatred of "shams," and made bold assaults 
upon many of the works of deceit where they lay strongly 
intrenched. 

One of the abuses which he sought persistently to do away 
with was the cumbering of the Congressional Record with 
remarks alleged to have been made, but never delivered, in 
Congress. Permit me to give an extract from one of the 
latest speeches made by him, and which, listened to with great 
interest in the Senate, should have brought forth abundant 
legislative fruit: 

Whatever may be said of the unimportant character of too much of the debates of 
Congress, as of other deliberative bodies, the importance of the proceedings can hardly 
lie overestimated, and upon these the debates throw great light. They are the pro- 
ceedings which establish and modify the Government of forty millions of free, active, 
adventurous people, and whatever makes these proceedings plainer is of high value 
to the people, by whose servants they are transacted. 



REMARKS BY MR. MANDERSON, OF NEBRASKA. 63 

Further on he said : 

The Congressional Record should lie what it purports to be. Its phonographic 
accuracy and completeness should mirror exactly what is said and done. It should 
speak, like a credible witness, "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." 
Its correctness is the essential quality of its value. If not correct it is not only useless 
but injurious; it deceives instead of informing, it misleads instead of guiding, and 
throws confusion upon what it undertakes to enlighten. 

Words of wisdom these, and abundantly worthy of the man 
who uttered them. 

Another matter is well worthy of note as showing the sense 
of fairness that characterized the late chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Printing. In the early days of his service inves- 
tigation showed that many scandalous frauds had attended the 
purchase of paper and other material used in the public print- 
ing. These were done away with by changes in the law 
conceived and carried into execution by Governor Anthony. 
Purchases made in open market from favorites were no longer 
countenanced. Advertisements are now made for sealed pro- 
posals to supply according to samples furnished to each bidder, 
and bids are opened in public by the Joint Committee on 
Printing, and awards made to the lowest bidder who will best 
subserve the interests of the Government. 

But I need not deal in further detail. Our brother's life 
was open as the day; he knew not concealments. So many 
were his virtues that "none knew him but to love him." 

A life of virtue and well-doing prepared him for the great 
end. As his life had been so was his death. It was most 
fitting that it should come to him quietly, gently, and without 
shock. 

He was to all of us most excellent example, and like him 

So may'st thou live till like ripe fruit thou drop 
Into thy mother's lap, or be with ease 
Gathered, not harshly plucked, for death mature. 



64 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 



Remarks by Mr. Sheffield, of Rhode Island. 

Mr. President: As I recall the intimate personal relations 
which existed between the late Senator Anthony and myself 
for a period of forty years and upwards, the pleasure I have 
felt from his society, the wisdom I have derived from his 
counsel, the many acts of kindness I have received at his 
hands, and my attachment to his person, I hardly dare to trust 
myself to review his life and character in the presence of so 
many reminders of his death. This Chamber was the scene of 
his long-continued and useful service to his country. The 
presence of his honored associates to pay a tribute to his 
exalted worth, and my own entry here to occupy the place 
his death made vacant, bring before my mind in bold outline 
the genial man whom I could have wished would have lived 
always. 

No Senator long acquainted with Mr. Anthony will arise to 
address the Senate on this occasion without having in mind 
the eulogies pronounced upon deceased Senators by him, eulo- 
gies which welled up from a mind and heart filled with human 
sympathy, as pure water from a natural spring, and expressed 
in language as pure as the fountain in which those eulogies 
originated; and especially will each Senator recall the burning 
words with which Mr. Anthony, as the representative of the 
Senate, delivered to the authorities of Massachusetts under the 
dome of its capitol the dead body of a great Senator; but the 
voice then so eloquent over the remains of Sumner is now 
hushed in death. The brilliant imagination which then min- 
gled sadness and triumph has now been put out forever. 



REMARKS BY MR. SHEFFIELD, OF RHODE ISLAND. 65 

Well may we say : 

Who would not sing for Lycidas? He knew 
Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme; 
He must not float upon his watery bier 
Unwept, and welter to the parching wind 
Without the meed of some melodious tear. 

Mr. Anthony was a lineal descendant of John Anthony, a 
native of Hempstead in England, who came to Boston in the 
Hercules in 1634, and to Rhode Island soon after 1640. Gil- 
bert Stuart, the artist, whose mother was an Anthony, who has 
preserved on canvas so faithfully the features of Washington, 
descended from the same ancestor. William Anthony was the 
father of Senator Anthony, and his mother was a daughter of 
James Greene, of Warwick. The Warwick Greenes have been 
a conspicuous family in Rhode Island from the foundation of 
the Colony. General Nathanael Greene, whose statue adorns 
a place in a hall of this Capitol, and Col. Ray Greene, who 
commanded at the battle of Red Bank, were members of this 
family, and two of its representatives have been members of 
the Senate. The ancestors of Governor Anthony belonged 
to the Society of Friends, which for a considerable time in 
our colonial history was the most influential denomination of 
Christians in the Colony. After Mr. Anthony graduated from 
college, he went to reside for a time and engaged in some mer- 
cantile pursuit at Savannah. He returned to Rhode Island, 
and was there married to Sarah Aborn, daughter of the late 
Christopher Rhodes, in 1837. In 1838, at the age of twenty- 
three, he assumed the editorial control of the Providence 

Journal. 

At that time, and for more than a score of years thereafter, 
he was surrounded by a coterie of young men, mostly college 
5 A 



66 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

friends, of learning, wit, and of marked ability as writers, who 
aided him more or less in the conduct of his paper. But while 
his associates contributed to its success, his was the critical 
judgment, the controlling mind, which carried the Journal to 
the front rank of the New England press, a standing which 
it yet maintains. In the heated contests which preceded the 
insurrection in the State in 1842, and during and subsequent to 
that event, while a constitution for the State was being framed 
and adopted, the Journal was the organ of the Government, 
and the distinguished ability with which it was conducted 
brought Mr. Anthony prominently before the people of the 
State, and in 1849 he was presented by the young Whigs as 
their candidate for governor, an office to which he was elected 
that year, and re-elected in 1850, when he declined to be 
further a candidate for the office. In 1854 the great sorrow 
which ever after shadowed somewhat the life of Governor 
Anthony fell upon him. On the 12th of July of that year 
his wife died. I might pause here to dwell upon the tender- 
ness of his nature as developed by that affliction, but the 
theme is too sacred — I will not sully it. Burdened with this 
great sorrow, early in 1855 he visited Europe for rest and relief. 
Upon his return he resumed control of his paper. 

Governor Anthony inherited from his father an interest in 
a manufacturing establishment located in his native town of 
Coventry. Though for a time he was interested in carrying 
on business at this establishment, he retired from it when he 
went abroad, but omitted to give notice of his withdrawal. In 
1857 the company became involved in the financial distress of 
that time. The creditors claimed that Governor Anthony 
was liable for the debts of the company. He did not stop to 
have the question of his liability for these debts settled in the 



REMARKS BY MR. SHEFFIELD, OF RHODE ISLAAD. 6j 

courts, but manfully came forward and met them, and honorably 
settled the claims made upon him. This added to his popu- 
larity, and in 1859, after a sharp contest, he was elected to the 
Senate of the United States, and to this office he was four 
times re-elected. This shows alike the stability of the char- 
acter of the Senator and of the people of the State who elected 
him. While in the Senate during this most interesting period 
of our national history the conduct of Senator Anthony was 
seen and known of all men. 

As an editor, Mr. Anthony clearly comprehended the rights 
and duties of his office. He understood the wants and necessi- 
ties of the industrial interests of New England, of which Prov- 
idence is a great center, and it was his laudable ambition to 
make his paper a leading advocate and organ of those interests. 
He thought clearly and selected with rapidity the words which 
could best express his thoughts in the most forcible manner. 
There was no room left for construction in what he wrote. 
His style was direct, clear, and forcible, without excess of ver- 
biage — it needed no interpreter. When he entered the Senate 
he had no superior in New England in writing effective edi- 
torial paragraphs, and though his Senatorial career was correct 
and very creditable to himself, it may be well doubted if he 
had continued in his profession whether his fame as an editor 
would not have been as desirable as it is as a Senator. 

As a politician Mr. Anthony stood by his party, seeking to 
correct its errors and to improve its policy within and not 
without its lines. He always adhered with fidelity to his 
convictions of duty, yet he always treated his opponents with 
a generous justice, while that treatment was duly appreciated, 
and when it was not he was yet just. He won the respect and 
regard of the opposing part}- by tempering the expression of 



68 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

his convictions with evidences of good nature and with an 
address which conciliated rather than repelled them. 

The secret of Mr. Anthony's influence was an entire 
frankness, the natural outcome of his character, with his 
absolute integrity of purpose, which prevented him from 
supporting any measure which he believed to be prejudicial 
to the best interests of the public. In the Senate he never 
made the most of himself, for he always underrated his own 
capabilities in comparison with the capabilities of others. He 
was careful never to undertake what he feared he might not 
be able to accomplish. 

Mr. Anthony was a man of amiable and even of fascinating 
manners, deferential to those about him, and mindful of all 
the proprieties of life; he was well calculated to impress with 
a sense of regard and respect all with whom he was brought 
into close relations; never obtrusive, full of conversational 
resources, endowed with a ready wit and a rich fund of pleas- 
ing anecdotes always at command to illustrate a point without 
encumbering it; strong in his friendships, tender in his sensi- 
bilities, yet with absolute self-control. That he was a student 
of the science of government apart from his observation of 
the practice of that science in the Senate, no one will pretend; 
and while he could state a point which would expose a defect 
in the argument of an adversary as clearly and as effectively as 
any of his compeers, he was not the man to present by public 
address a subject involving complicated details. He rather 
directed his force against an adversary by isolated assaults at 
his weak points than by an attack upon his entire line — by 
sortie, rather than by siege. He was a conciliatory man, and 
was possessed of great forbearance. He would go to the very 
verge of propriety to avoid the giving of offense, and would 



REMARKS BY MR. SHEFFIELD, OF RHODE ISLAND, 69 

exhaust the resources of a very charitable disposition before he 
would believe that cause for offense was intended to be given 
to him. But there was a line which his self-respect would not 
allow him to pass or an adversary to cross, and when forced to 
resistance he was a vigorous and unyielding adversary. 

Mr. Anthony loved his native State. He was devoted to 
its institutions and thoroughly imbued with the spirit of its 
history. He believed with Lord Coleridge that the character 
of a state was not to be determined by the number of acres of 
ground it contained or by the number of its population, but 
rather by the characters and achievements of its people. In 
quiet retirement, in company with men of kindred thoughts, 
in conversation Mr. Anthony dwelt with admiration upon 
the fortitude and self-denial of those exiles of exiles who 
settled the Rhode Island Colony; upon their sufferings and 
hardships, and withal upon the Christian charity which they 
exhibited in planting and maintaining the great ideas upon 
which the Colony was founded. Then he would trace the 
progress of the colonial history, the growth of the Colon}-, and 
its development into a State; the rise of its commerce until 
its canvas whitened every sea; and that commerce alone, and 
the commercial enterprise of its people, merited the glowing 
eulogy of Burke in the House of Commons upon the com- 
mercial enterprise of all the Colonies. Then he would describe 
how wars and the adverse policy of the Government drove 
that commerce from the ocean, and forced upon reluctant New 
England a blessing in disguise, that wiser policy, which the 
great commoner of Kentucky called " the American system" 
of fostering and protecting American industries; and how 
Rhode Island, upon the ruins of its commercial industries, 
reared factories and workshops and operated them, until their 



jo LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

handiwork under the operation of this benign system won for 
them a place among the foremost industries of the country. 
At these times he would also delight to dwell upon the men 
who had illustrated Rhode Island history and their achieve- 
ments, to show the claims of Rhode Island upon the National 
Union, a part of which achievements he appeared to feel to be 
his by inheritance from a line of ancestors who had borne an 
important part in settling, developing, and maintaining the 
Colony and State during every period of its history. 

The grave has closed over him and shut in his mortal 
remains. Throughout his life he anticipated the harvest of a 
good name, and he did nothing to blight it. His end did not 
come until after a long career of useful public service, when 
his physical energies had been exhausted and the ends of life 
had been attained. It is a sad thought; but it will not be 
long before ' ' our lighted torches will pass to other hands. ' ' 

Senator Anthony was a fortunate man; fortunate in his 
moral and intellectual endowments; fortunate in his friends 
and in his surroundings; fortunate in his life, fortunate in his 
death in his own house with kind friends around him. He 
has left no stain upon his good name; his finished course 
covers nothing to be regretted, leaves undone nothing desired, 
but that his career could have been prolonged and that his 
usefulness could have been continued. But it has been other- 
wise ordered, and his friends should be thankful for the 
blessings which his life has conferred, rather than to murmur 
at the Providence which has determined it. 

Mr. President, I second the resolutions on your table. 

The President pro tempore. The question is on agreeing 
to the resolutions. 

The resolutions were agreed to unanimously; and (at two 
o'clock and fifty minutes p. m.) the Senate adjourned. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 

Wednesday, January 21, 1885. 



At the appointed hour of four o'clock, Mr. Speaker Carlisle, 
in accordance with previous action, laid before the House 
the resolutions of the Senate in relation to the death of the 
late Senator Anthony; which were read by the Clerk, as 

follows : 

In the Senate of the United States, 

January 19, 1885. 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow of the death of Henry 
B. Anthony, late a Senator from the State of Rhode Island. 

Resolved, That the business of the Senate be now suspended, to enable his asso- 
ciates to pay proper tribute of regard to his high character and distinguished public 
services. 

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate communicate these resolutions to the 
House of Representatives. 

Resolved, That, as an additional mark of respect to the memory of the deceased, the 
Senate do now adjourn. 

Mr. Chace, of Rhode Island. I offer the following resolu- 
tions, which I ask the Clerk to read. 
The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That the House of Representatives has received with deep sorrow the 
official announcement of the death of Henry Bowen Anthony, late United States 
Senator from the State of Rhode Island. 

Resolved, That the business of the House be now suspended, that opportunity may 
be afforded to give expression of our sense of his personal worth, of his public services, 
and of the loss which the country and his native State have sustained. 

Resolved, That at the conclusion of these tributes to his memory the House shall 

stand adjourned. 

71 



J 2 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 



Remarks by Mr. Chace, of Rhode Island. 

Aram Rhode Island is called to mourn the loss of a distin- 
guished son. A second time in my brief career in this House 
it becomes my duty to pay the last tribute of respect to the 
memory of one of her Senators. Again we are reminded how 
swiftly glide these lives of ours; that the dreams of hope are 
but shadows; that the honors for which we clutch must wither 
in our hand; that the cares, the joys, the fears of life alike soon 
find an end. It is well for us to pause for a brief season and 
look back. 

When, in the closing days of 1859, tne Senate of the Thirty- 
sixth Congress met, the two sides of that Chamber more nearly 
resembled the representatives of two hostile countries than an 
ordinary legislative body, met to calmly discuss questions of 
common interest. All of those wonderful intellectual giants, 
the product of the primitive days of the Republic, had passed 
off the stage of action. Clay, full of years, but weary and 
worn with compromise, had sunk to rest with only anxious 
hope, and was reposing at his own beautiful Ashland; the 
ashes of Calhoun were mingling with the soil of his native 
Carolina; Webster, almost heartbroken and full of forebodings 
for the future of the Union, had been laid in the simple tomb 
at Marshfield, where the ocean which he loved so well might 
sing his solemn dirge through the coining ages. The gather- 
ing storm which these men had vainly sought to avert was 
darkly impending over the nation. All the great economic 
questions were swallowed up in this one absorbing topic. 

Among those who entered that Senate and took sides with 
the defenders of freedom was Hi^nry B. Anthony, of Rhode 



REMARKS BY MR. CHACE, OF RHODE ISLAND. J 3 

Island. In the prime of life, at forty-five years of age, inher- 
iting from a long line of virtuous ancestry a constitution of 
wonderful strength and vigor; of singular beauty, both of 
person and feature, with a commanding presence, highly 
educated, cultivated in his manners, with a rare grace and 
urbanity, and a charming felicity in social intercourse, he at 
once became a favorite, even in those days of intense partisan- 
ship, with members of both sides of the Senate. Possessed of 
intellectual gifts of the very highest order, thoroughly furn- 
ished as he was by the peculiar training which a long career of 
journalism had given him, he was fitted to take a high position 
in the councils of the nation. 

Possessed of a peculiarly well-balanced mind, his caution 
and prudence often restrained him from labored efforts of 
oratory and from participating in the excitements of clashing 
debate. In all the legislative history of the country but few 
men have introduced measures of great and far-reaching im- 
portance. The qualities that dazzle and captivate the popular 
mind are not always those which are of most value. As in 
nature so in the operation of parliamentary bodies, we find 
the silent forces are often the most potent. It is by patient toil 
and careful prevision in committee that the public interests 
are guarded and promoted. This was the peculiar field of 
usefulness to which our lamented friend bent his attention. 
On the floor of the Senate he was alert, attentive, and careful, 
and when occasion required, quick to penetrate the armor of 
error, to expose its purpose, or to defend those measures for 
which the public weal called. 

He did not speak often, but when his voice was heard it 
commanded attention. His speeches, always bearing evidence 
of great learning and research, were couched in the purest and 



74 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

most polished English. His intellect was broad and vigorous, 
with wit as keen and incisive as a Damascus blade, that would 
have been a dangerous weapon with one less gentle, for he was 
as kind and loving as a woman. 

In all the long list of names borne on the Senate roll two 
men only have been elected to five consecutive terms — Thomas 
H. Benton and Henry B. Anthony. And yet, although 
serving so long, much of the time during the most stormy 
period of our parliamentary history, no man of all that throng 
of fellow-Senators could say that he had just cause of offense 
toward him, and with rare exceptions all were his friends. 

Serving at a time when from the necessities of the Govern- 
ment growing out of the war money was poured out like water, 
when in the mad fever of speculation and grasping for sudden 
wealth through Government contracts reputations went down 
like soldiers in battle, he came out unscathed, not a breath of 
suspicion resting upon him. Holding the most pronounced 
views on all the questions which agitated the public mind like 
a seething caldron during the period before and after the war, 
though abating nothing, he retained the friendship of his most 
earnest opponents. Knowing the weakness of indecision, he 
reached forward for political truth with a firm hand and still 
preserved a strong balance of conservatism. 

Deeply learned in the foundation principles of our Govern- 
ment, and as deeply skilled in the use of language, he some- 
times presented those principles with wonderful effect. 

He was twice elected governor of Rhode Island and twice 
President of the United States Senate. But long and honor- 
able and useful as have been his services in the Senate, it is as 
a faithful son of Rhode Island that the citizens of that State 
will most cherish his memory. Born in the town of Coventry 



REMARKS BY MR. CHACE, OF RHODE ISLAND. 75 

of a Quaker family whose ancestors had dwelt there from the 
days of its earliest settlement, spending his youth among the 
hills of his native State, educated in her schools and at her 
university, putting forth the first labors of his early manhood 
as well as the more brilliant efforts of his maturer years in 
defense of her constitution, he loved her as a man loves his 
mother. 

He was, indeed, a part of Rhode Island. He believed her 
constitution to be the most perfect instrument of the kind evei 
drawn by the hand of man, and his defense of it is unanswer- 
able. His name and his fame are linked with Rhode Island 
and her happily constituted system. There, as a journalist, he 
attained a most distinguished position, building up, from small 
beginnings, one of the most influential and useful journals in 
New England; earning, by the purity of his diction, clearness 
and conciseness of style, and felicity of expression, a high repu- 
tation. Honored and trusted by her people, he honored them 
by the faithfulness of his services. 

I have known Senator Anthony from my youth up — known 
him as did all, to respect, to admire, to love him. In every 
sphere, in all circles, under all circumstances, wherever he 
went, his progress was a constant conquest of friendship, and 
friends once won, he ' ' grappled them to his soul with hooks of 
steel." 

How many who commenced the race of life with him have 
fallen by the way while he passed on. The friends of his 
youth died and he found others. 

During his sendee in the Senate he saw the shackles stricken 
from four million slaves, the deed of manumission written in 
the blood of three hundred thousand men ; the Union, totter- 
ing to its foundation, purified and restored; the dream of the 



j 6 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

fathers that this land should be consecrated to liberty realized. 
During his term he saw men rise to distinction in both Houses 
of Congress and pronounced their eulogies. As Senator, he 
saw Lincoln inaugurated; held up his hands during the vigils 
of those weary four years of war, and saw him buried, mourned 
alike by friend and foe; saw Garfield rise from obscurity to 
distinction in the forum, the field, and in this House— elected 
Senator, made President, and laid in his grave on the shores 
of Lake Erie. Grant's wonderful career from the store in 
Galena to his triumphant progress around the world was but 
an episode. 

Of his hope for the future life I cannot speak. He rarely 
spoke of it to me. 

As life is ordinarily viewed, it may be said that his was a 
success; but if we could go with him through the long jour- 
ney, full rounded up to near three-score and ten, we might 
not maintain our estimate of what is human success. He had 
hosts of friends and few enemies; was honored as but few men 
have been; but with all he carried for many years a great sor- 
row. The wife of his youth, beautiful and accomplished, was 
early stricken down, and ever after he continued alone the 
journey of life. He realized, as all must, that — 

All pomp was but a name ; 
That gold and silver were not life and joy; 
That what to-day bestowed of love or fame, 
To-morrow's breath would wither and destroy. 

He realized, as do all who grapple with great public ques- 
tions, of how much too little avail are our best endeavors to 
establish justice, to put an end to inequality, or to satisfy those 
less favored. He saw how empty a thing is honor, what a 
dream is life itself, and how decay and death follow quickly 



REMARKS BY MR. A'ELIEY, OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



/ / 



after youth and strength, as cloud-shadows chase the sunshine 
on the mountain-side. Occupying as he did for many years so 
distinguished a position, he realized that — 

He who ascends the mountain tops shall find 

Its loftiest peaks most wrapped in clouds and snow ; 
He who surpasses or subdues mankind 

Must look down on the hate of those below ; 

Though far above the sun of glory glow, 
And far beneath the earth and ocean spread, 

Round him are icy rocks, and loudly blow 
Contending tempests on his naked head, 
And thus reward the toils which to those summits led. 

With him "life's vain parade is over." But though "he 
walked with throngs of good friends, now at last he is called 
to pass alone the dread portals of death." 

He will long be remembered by his associates here for the 
radiance of his genial presence, for his careful attention to 
every detail of legislative duty, for the warmth of his friend- 
ship, and the absence of partisan rancor. In his native State 
his memory will be cherished by young and old for his gen- 
tleness, his dignity, his faithfulness to trust; for his long and 
useful services. 



Remarks by Mr. Kelley, of Pennsylvania. 

Mr. Speaker: I address the House not because I believe I 
can add anything of value to what others will say of the char- 
acter and labors of the late Senator Anthony, but because the 
sweet memories of an unclouded friendship which extended 
through a quarter of a century and endured the friction of 
personal, political, and official relations impel me to offer a 
tribute, however unworthy of its subject it ma)- prove to be. 



78 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

Henry B. Anthony entered upon the duties of Senator 
from the State of Rhode Island in December, 1859, at the 
opening of the Thirty-sixth Congress, and I entered fully 
upon my duties as Representative from the fourth district of 
Pennsylvania on the 4th of July, 1861, when the two Houses, 
in obedience to the proclamation of President Lincoln, met 
' ' to consider and determine such measures as in their wisdom 
the public safety and interest may seem to demand. ' ' 

The times were disjointed before the elections of i860 were 
held. The controlling spirits of the South having determined 
to submit the interpretation of the Constitution to the arbitra- 
ment of war, the Senators from that section of the country 
withdrew from the Senate, and those who had been looked 
to to represent the people in the House of Representatives 
declined to accept Congressional nominations and refused to 
recognize the Thirty-seventh Congress as a body whose enact- 
ments would be binding on them in law or conscience. The 
situation produced by this action was novel and portentous. 
In matters of gravest import and responsibility the Executive 
must act without the aid of precedent or tradition, and the 
President and his Cabinet naturally sought counsel from the 
recently chosen representatives of the loyal people. It thus 
came to pass that gentlemen elected to the Thirty-seventh 
Congress, who, under ordinary circumstances, would probably 
not have met until the month of December, became habitues 
of the capital and co-workers from the 4th of March, between 
which date and the organization of Congress I frequently met 
Senator Anthony in such social intercourse as the already 
disturbed condition of Washington would permit, and in con- 
sultation with the President, heads of Departments, Senators, 
and members-elect of the House of Representatives. 



REMARKS BY MR. KELLE V, OF PENNSYL VANIA. Jg 

Though a man of broad and varied information and profound 
convictions he preferred no claim to leadership, and superficial 
observers more readily regarded him as a devotee to society 
than as an earnest man of affairs. He was in the vi^or of 
mature manhood, and I recall with pleasure the sweet smile 
that wreathed his handsome face upon the slightest provocative 
to mirth. Within an irreverent but limited circle of acquaint- 
ances he was called "the rosebud Senator," which sobriquet 
might have been bestowed as a tribute to the healthful glow 
which mantled his cheek or from the fact that in those days 
when bontonnieres were in less common use than now he 
constantly wore a bud or other choice flower. 

He had none of the impetuosity or burning enthusiasm 
of Senators Wade, of Ohio, and Chandler, of Michigan, or 
of the intense devotion to the advanced opinions, approved 
by his judgment, which characterized my great colleague 
Thaddeus Stevens; yet he was the trusted counselor of his 
more impulsive fellow-Senators, and his fidelity to the con- 
victions which sustained the Republican party and impelled its 
advance from point to point in the cause of personal freedom 
until American slavery had perished was never doubted by 
that imperious and exacting party leader, the great commoner 
of Pennsylvania. 

The means of communication between the capital and 
remote sections of the Republic were, in comparison with 
those of to-day, very restricted, and the President could not 
with propriety name an earlier day than the 4th of July for the 
assembling of Congress. But that the armed forces of the 
improvised confederacy should be prevented from invading the 
capital or any of the loyal States, he had upon his own 
authority put seventy-five thousand men into the field to 



So LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

which the United States had been challenged. When, on the 
designated day, Congress had assembled, the President in his 
message expressed the estimate of the executive department of 
the Government as to the draft the rebellion would make upon 
the resources of the Republic. In suggesting the number of 
men and the amount of means he hoped Congress would pro- 
vide he said, " It is now recommended that yon give the legal 
means for making this contest a short and decisive one; that 
you place at the control of the Government for the work at 
least four hundred thousand men and four hundred million 
dollars." 

From that day until Grant had restored to Lee his sword, 
the surrender of which had symbolized the defeat of the 
confederate army and the collapse of the pretended govern- 
ment which had called it into existence, until the work of 
reconstruction had been completed, so far as legislation could 
promote its completion, the opinions of Senator Anthony 
were sought and weighed by the Executive and those legis- 
lators who from their greater prominence in the proceedings 
of Congress were popularly regarded as the men who were 
shaping the destinies of our country. His judgment was 
rarely or never at fault. He seemed -to comprehend every 
question as it arose, whether it was a measure to provide men 
and means for successful warfare; or to establish a system of 
finance which should, without embarrassing the productive 
interests of the country, enable the Government to furnish 
the Army and Navy with the amplest munitions of war; or 
to restore to the position in the Union they had sought to 
abandon the impoverished and decimated States of the South; 
or to reduce our revenues without impairing the public credit 
by the repeal of man)- of the taxes which had been adopted as 



REMARKS BY MR. POLAND, OF VERMONT. Si 

a war measure, and which bore, as all internal or excise taxes 
must bear, specially upon the producing classes. 

Caution is the parent of prudence, and caution was a marked 
characteristic of Senator Anthony. While appreciating the 
greatness of the duties before the Government, he would delay, 
if not postpone indefinitely, the adoption as a policy of any 
measure or set of measures that seemed to involve the possi- 
bility of encouraging the enemies of the Government by the 
abandonment of a declared purpose. It was this characteristic 
which, above all others, secured him the supreme confidence of 
President Lincoln, whose caution is now seen to have been as 
efficient in bringing the war to a successful close as were the 
skill and courage of the most brilliant of our soldiers. 

But I am trespassing upon the time of the House, my 
object in addressing which was, as I have said, to simply lay 
a humble tribute on the bier of a long-cherished friend. 



Remarks by Mr. Poland, of Vermont. 

Mr. Speaker: I should hardly have felt justified in occupy- 
ing a moment on this occasion except for the fact that I am 
one of the few members of this House who served in the other 
with the deceased Senator Anthony. 

My acquaintance with him commenced with the opening of 
the Thirty-ninth Congress, the first Congress after the close of 
the great war. The ten years which followed were as trying 
and difficult to the men engaged in the administration of 
public affairs as any in our history. The questions as to how 
the seceding States were to be restored to their proper places 
in the Union, how peace and harmony were to be again 
restored, and the whole country again united after the fearful 
6 A 



82 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

disruption, and the financial question of how to provide for the 
immense indebtedness, were all new and difficult, and might 
well appall and distract the wisest statesman. The proper 
settlement of some of these questions was embarrassed and 
complicated by the bitterness and acrimony naturally engen- 
dered by the losses and sufferings caused by the war. 

Having been in Congress myself during the ten years 
succeeding the war, I feel justified in saying that Senator 
Anthony bore a much more important part and exercised 
a much greater influence in the proper settlement of all 
these great questions than he was generally credited with in 
the country. He made no pretension to oratory, and did not 
mingle largely in general debate. But his associates soon 
learned his value, the breadth and solidity of his judgment, 
his extended and accurate knowledge upon all public ques- 
tions, and he exercised the influence accorded to a wise and 
sagacious man. While the war was waging he gave most 
earnest and vigorous effort to make it successful. When it 
was over, he ranked among those who desired in settling 
and adjusting the questions growing out of it to show all 
possible kindness and magnanimity. 

The Senator was exceedingly ready and adroit in practical 
sueeestions to meet and avoid difficulties which arose in the 
routine of legislative business. 

I may be pardoned for relating an instance when he relieved 
me from a great embarrassment. Members who were here 
from 1865 to 1875 will remember that during that period the 
great work of revising the national statutes was begun and 
completed. I was chairman of the committee on the revision 
in the House and had the general charge of the matter before 
Congress. The revision as reported by the commissioners to 



REMARKS B Y MR. POLAND, OF VERMONT. 83 

Congress was printed on large paper, in coarse type, like ordi- 
nary bills, making a very large bulk. The amendments pro- 
posed by the committee and adopted by the House numbered 
many hundreds. 

The rules of the House required the whole bill and all the 
amendments to be engrossed on paper by the Clerk before 
being sent to the Senate. As this would consume a great deal 
of time, the House, upon my application, suspended this rule, 
and allowed the bill to be engrossed by incorporating the 
amendments into one of the printed copies of the bill, by inter- 
lining, writing on the margin, or pasting on such amendments 
as were too long to be written in. In this form the revision 
was sent to and passed by the Senate. The joint rule of the 
two Houses requires that a bill passed by both Houses shall be 
engrossed on parchment to be sent to the President. This 
would require a great amount of time, and the end of the 
session was approaching. The House thereupon passed a joint 
resolution to suspend the joint rule for the engrossment on 
parchment, and authorized another copy to be prepared as 
before to be sent to the President. This joint resolution came 
back from the Senate disagreed to. Senator Garrett Davis, of 
Kentucky, a most excellent gentleman, but who tolerated no 
innovation upon established usages and ancient ways, led the 
opposition, and was horrified at the notion of sending such a 
patched bundle to the President to be preserved in the solemn 
archives of the State Department. The House asked a confer- 
ence. I was one on the part of the House, Senator Davis one 
from the Senate, and he stood for a parchment engrossment of 
the whole Revised Statutes. I was in a great dilemma. I 
had given years of work to it and had obtained its passage 
through Congress, but it was likely to fail because I could 



84 L I FE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

not get it to the President for his signature. Fortunately 
Senator Anthony was one of the Senate conferees, and he 
proposed that the whole be reprinted and send it to the Presi- 
dent in that form. I supposed that would take too long, but 
the Congressional Printer was sent for, who said it could be 
done in a week, and thereupon Senator Anthony's proposi- 
tion was reported by the conference and adopted. I think I 
ought to finish this story by saying that the whole work was 
set up and printed at the Government Printing Office in three 
days and brought to me on the morning of the fourth day in a 
handsomely bound volume, which I still keep as the earliest 
edition of that work. 

He was utterly without ostentation. He disliked all show 
and parade. His manners and habits were of the plainest and 
simplest character. One of the pleasantest recollections of my 
life is of a somewhat protracted visit I made him in his plain, 
quiet, quaint old home in the city of Providence. He was a 
thorough scholar and a clear and forcible writer. His long 
connection with the public press, his ability as a writer, and 
the fairness and candor with which he discussed public ques- 
tions enabled him to do much in shaping the public judgment 
of the country during the eventful years of his manhood. 

But the crowning glory of our deceased friend was the 
perfect kindness and amiability of his character. His heart 
warmed to all men. Perhaps he had enemies, but I never 
heard of one. His culture and his character seemed to com- 
bine in some of his literary composition. On some occasions 
of this kind, when called Upon to pay tribute to the memory of 
a deceased friend or colleague, his efforts have equaled in ten- 
derness of thought and beauty of expression anything I have 
ever heard or read. I have known no man whose whole life 



REMARKS BY MR. MORSE, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 85 

was more charming. All his words and deeds, both public and 
private, seemed imbued with the spirit of the holy evangel, 
' ' On earth peace, good will toward men. ' ' 



Remarks by Mr. Morse, of Massachusetts. 

Mr. Speaker : It may be presumptuous on my part to rise 
on the floor of this House to attempt to deliver a eulogy on 
the late Senator Anthony, but being beloved by the people 
of my State as much as he was in his own, and particularly 
so by the people of my district, I feel it my duty in their 
behalf to say a few words. 

Mr. Speaker, so closely allied are the neighboring States of 
Rhode Island and Massachusetts in martial renown, in com- 
mercial interests, and in social ties, that I feel it to be my 
duty, as it is my pleasure, to cast my humble tribute on the 
grave of Henry Bowen Anthony. We knew him well in 
Massachusetts as the editor of the Providence Journal, which 
has a large circulation in the southeastern portion of our State ; 
we respected him as the governor of our sister State, proud of 
her history and a stalwart defender of her institutions ; we 
honored him as a Senator who represented the smallest of 
States, but whose noble intellect and patriotic heart covered 
the length and breadth of our great Union ; and we loved him 
as an honorable gentleman, without fear and without reproach, 
who has during the last quarter of a century played important 
political and social parts in the great drama of life performed 
on this busy Washington stage. 

Others have eloquently narrated the successive events of his 
life. My own personal acquaintance with him in this Capitol 
was mainly concerning those matters which had been referred 



86 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

to the Naval Committees of the Senate and the House, of 
which we were respectively members. He having served on 
the Naval Committee of the Senate from 1863 until his death 
continuously (and having again and again declined its chair- 
manship because he preferred to remain chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Printing), he was well acquainted with the condition 
and the needs of our gallant Navy, its officers, its navy-yards, 
its academy and school. Officers of merit, with untarnished 
records, found in him a friend and an advocate. He was, how- 
ever, sternly opposed to the retention on the quarter-deck of 
those whose known indulgency rendered them at times unfit 
to command without jeopardizing the safety of the vessels and 
the men under their command. 

Intercourse with Senator Anthony on public and private 
business was at all times attractive and acceptable. Few 
members of Congress have retained during twenty-five years 
of continuous service, amid the labors, the intrigues, and 
the conflicts of political life, so many of the sterling, manly 
qualities which are here destroyed. 

His character as a statesman, as a citizen, and as a friend 
was so truly and so lovingly portrayed at his funeral by Rev. 
Augustus Woodbury, his religious adviser and the chaplain 
of his deceased associate, General Burnside, that I annex the 
funeral discourse to these remarks. * 

When Senator Anthony was here last winter the stamp of 
illness was on his features, but he had the same ease and grace 
of manner and conversation which had so endeared him to his 
friends when he was in health, and he spoke of his bodily 



* The eloquent funeral discourse by the Rev. Augustus Woodbury, which was read 
in the House of Representatives by direction of Mr. Morse, will be found on pages 

5-i5- 



REMARKS BY MR. KEIFER, OF OHIO. 87 

troubles with calm composure. Before the summer months 
had ended he had gone to his rest, surrounded by his relatives 
and friends, with the beauty of the setting sun, after having 
lived out what the psalmist calls "the days of our age," 
adorned with the richest virtues of the heart. He has gone, 
full of years and honors, to meet the experiences of another 
world. Nothing is left but sweet remembrances of his purity 
of character, his generosity and liberality of spirit, his proud 
and noble manhood. 

Immortality o'ersweeps 
All pains, all tears, all time, all fears, and peals 
Like the eternal thunders of the deep 
Into our ears this truth, He lives forever. 



Remarks by Mr. Keifer, of Ohio. 

Mr. Speaker: Again the Congress of the United States 
pauses in its important legislative duties to commemorate the 
illustrious dead. 

Henry Bowen Anthony, of Rhode Island, though much 
my senior, was my personal friend. 

He was born April I, 1815, in the State he served so long 
and so well. He graduated at Brown University in 1833. He 
was five times elected by his State to full. terms in the United 
States Senate. He was an honored member of that august 
legislative body from March 4, 1859, to September 2, 1884, the 
date of his death. 

At twenty-three years of age he entered upon the highly 
honorable work of a journalist in his native State. He never 
entirely gave up the profession of journalism. In 1850 and 
1851 he was governor of his State, and served it acceptably. 



88 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

He was then a Whig. He was a born gentleman, of Anglo- 
Saxon blood and Quaker principles. His generous, kind, and 
genial nature seemed to save him from many of the hard 
blows that most great men have to receive in a successful 
life. He was just and considerate to friend and foe, never 
arrogant. He was charitable and never ostentatious. He did 
not rely on high public position to attain name or fame, but 
upon accomplished deeds. He was a patient toiler after useful 
knowledge, and when acquired he wielded it for his country's 
good. A single fact with him was prized more highly than 
a volume of loose generalization. He had a critical constit- 
uency to watch him in his public life. It was exacting, but 
not unreasonable. Another has well said: 

He was a stalwart champion of Rhode Island, of her sons and daughters, of her 
traditions and her institutions. 

He personified in his whole life, as citizen, editor, chief exec- 
utive of his State, Senator, and presiding officer of the United 
States Senate, the true type of an American gentleman. He 
has been aptly called the "gentleman-statesman." He lacked 
none of the noble qualities of a high-spirited American. He 
was ever keenly sensible to all the manly qualities. He was 
filled with convictions, and they were his own. His views 
are impressed upon man}- of the laws of his country. 

His Senatorial life began when rebellion and treason were 
ripening in and around this Capitol. He saw both rise in 
the full bloom of defiant power, and then fall prostrate by 
the judgment of war. He never faltered in his patriotism, 
and when war came he held up the hands of President Lincoln 
from Bull Run to Appomattox. His was not a blind patriot- 
ism, but an enlightened devotion to a country he loved. 



REMARKS BY MR. KEIFER, OF OHIO. go 

He hated slavery because he believed it was an obstacle 
in the progressive march of civilization and condemned by 
Christianity. He spoke and voted for every measure looking 
to the eradication of the institution of slavery in the United 
States and of every other injustice incident to that institu- 
tion. He favored all the amendments to the Constitution 
of the United States adopted since the war. He was for 
universal amnesty and universal suffrage. 

He was twice elected (March, 1863, and March, 1871) Pres- 
ident pro tempore of the Senate, and in that position served 
four years. He displayed rare abilities as a parliamentarian 
and presiding officer. His principal committee work was on 
the Naval and Public Printing Committees. He was chair- 
man of the latter committee for twenty-one years. He served 
with distinction on other standing and special committees 
during and since the war. 

During his chairmanship of the Committee on Public Print- 
ing and under his direction great improvements were made 
in the character and speedy execution of the public printing. 
Under his master care and wise counsel the most wonder- 
ful and extensive printing establishment in the world has 
grown up. 

He was not a frequent debater on the floor of the Senate, 
though the Congressional Globe and Record contain many of 
his eloquent speeches on important subjects. He talked when 
he had something useful to say. He always, when speaking, 
commanded the attention of the Senate. His nearest and most 
confidential friend, Maj. Ben: Perley Poore, speaking of his 
addresses, says: 

His eloquence is practical and sensible, unadorned with worthless verbal em- 
broidery, yet throughout its solid Senatorial sentences there is a classic grace that 



9<D LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

charms the ear, while his dignified presence, pleasing manner, and pleasant voice aid 
in gratifying the audience. 

He was bold and honest in the expression of his views, and 
thus made himself felt in public affairs. He loved the edito- 
rial profession, and always tried to ennoble it and give it 
greater weight and more universal influence for good. 

Speaking in the Senate on this subject, he said: 

I know something about the management of a newspaper. It is almost the only 
matter that I do know anything about ; and for the truth of the maxim which I am 
about to declare I appeal to those Senators, on both sides of the Chamber, who, if they 
have not had greater experience than I have in that honorable profession, have reflected 
greater credit upon it. It is this : A paper that cannot support itself cannot be of any 
service to a party; to depend upon it is like leaning upon a man who cannot stand up; 
to spend money upon it is like wasting fuel in the attempt to kindle a stone. The day 
when such papers were read has passed ; and the day has long since arrived when a 
paper, to be of service to a party, must first establish a value to the public. It must 
acquire a character for the reliability of its facts and for the candor of its arguments ; it 
must have the public confidence before it can affect the public opinion; it must be in a 
considerable degree independent of party before a party can derive any great value 
from its services. Of all the foolish expenditures that are made for political purposes, 
none are more useless and wasteful than those for the support of the class of newspapers 
that very few read and that nobody believes. 

Senator Anthony's services to his country in time of war 
had substantial recognition by the District of Columbia Com- 
mandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion. He was 
the first man elected by it a companion of the third class, a 
degree conferred only on civilians who rendered distinguished 
service to their country in the war of the rebellion. The 
resolutions adopted by that commandery after his death are 
considered worthy of repetition here. 

Mr. Anthony, by his kind consideration for others, was in 
all social circles a special favorite. In private conversation he 
had the rare quality of being a respectful listener, while at the 
same time he was an entertaining talker. 



REMARKS B Y MR. KEIFER, OF OHIO. g \ 

Though advanced in years, and decorated with well-earned 
public honors, he never spoke of himself or his acts with pride 
or egotism. Retrospection is a habit of the mind in the aged, 
and there is no reason why they should not speak with pride of 
their past successes. The aged veteran soldier 

. Shoulders his crutch, and shows 

How fields are won. 

And why should not the veteran statesman speak of his 
exploits and victories? Senator Anthony was too modest 
to do this. 

He outlived nearly all his early Senatorial colleagues. The 
names of Douglas and Yates of Illinois, Baker of California, 
Sumner of Massachusetts, Fessenden of Maine, Seward and 
King of New York, Chase, Wade, and Pugh of Ohio, Crit- 
tenden of Kentucky, Collamer of Vermont, Hale of New 
Hampshire, Carpenter and Howe of Wisconsin, Morton of 
Indiana, Chandler of Michigan, and many others equally dis- 
tinguished have long ago been "carved on the marble that 
covers their dust." Rhode Island has buried but recently 
(September, 1881) another United States Senator — General 
Burnside. He was a soldier of renown as well as a states- 
man. 

While both Senators Anthony and Burnside belonged to 
the State they so faithfully and ably represented, yet their 
fame and deeds belong now to the whole country, to freedom, 
to civilization, and to humanity. 

Resolutions of I he Military Order of the Loyal Legion, District of Columbia Command- 
ery, adopted Nove?nber jf, 1884. 

Henry Bowen Anthony, a companion of the third class, died at his residence 
in Providence, on the 2d day of September, 1884. 

Senator Anthony was born in Coventry, Rhode Island, April 1, 1S15. His ances- 



q 2 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

tors were among the oldest inhabitants of that town, their Saxon blood and Quaker 
principles indicating their origin and their character. Receiving a classical education, he 
was graduated from Brown University in 1833. His health failing, he relinquished his 
legal studies, and in 1838 he assumed the editorial charge of the Providence Journal 
and soon gave evidence of his common sense, his practical energy, and his varied 
learning, spiced with a refined humor that attracted the attention of the reading people 
of Rhode Island. No man in that State had a wider circle of devoted friends, and 
those who did not enjoy his personal acquaintance could say that — 

He, in a general honest thought, 

And common good to all, made one of them. 

His life was gentle, and the elements 

So mix'd in him that Nature might stand up 

And say to all the world, "This is a man! " 

In 1849 Mr - Anthony was elected governor of the State of Rhode Island, and he 
was re-elected in 1850, but he declined being a candidate for a third term. His course 
as chief magistrate of his native State was marked by a strict attention to its material 
interests and devotion to the great principles of public liberty. 

On retiring from the gubernatorial chair he again devoted his whole time to his 
editorial labors until 1859, when he was elected United States Senator. He took his 
seat in the Senate on the 5th of December, 1859, and continuously occupied it, having 
been successively re-elected in 1865, in 1871, in 1877, and in 1883. He was several 
times elected President pro tempore, and at the time of his death he was the Pater 
Senatus. 

At the outbreak of the rebellion Mr. Anthony at once took a decided stand in 
defense of the Union. A typical conservative, and by birth a lover of peace, he faced 
the secession movement with unflinching firmness and advocated its unconditional 
defeat. The sagacity which prompted the decision which nerved and the resolution 
which supported him are stamped upon the legislative annals of the war for the restora- 
tion of the Union, and the soldiers and sailors of Rhode Island will ever cherish their 
recollections of his patriotic generosity. 

Senator Anthony was not a frequent speaker, but when he addressed the Senate he 
was always listened to with attention. His eloquence was practical and sensible, with 
no attempt at worthless verbal embroidery, yet amidst its solid Senatorial sentences 
there was classic grace that engaged the ear, while his dignified presence, grace of 
manner, and pleasant voice aided in gratifying his audiences. 

The commandcry of the District of Columbia selected Senator Anthony as a com- 
panion of the third class, an honor which lie highly appreciated. He was not, hovever, 



REMARKS B Y MR. TUCKER, OF VIRGINIA. 93 

permitted to meet with the commandery many times. Death claimed him, and the 
summons had to be obeyed. His stalwart form, crowned with white locks, will no 
more be seen in the Senate Chamber; his kind heart is cold; his friendly hand is 
numb. It is pleasing to know that his mental faculties were bright, clear, and firm 
to the last, and he died in the mellow evening-shine of matured faculties, as he had 
lived, a philosopher, a gentleman, and a Christian. 

Resolved, That this memorial be entered on the records of the commandery, and 
that a copy of the same be forwarded to the family of our late companion. 

JOHN F. MILLER, 

Brevet Major- General, U. S. V., 
HENRY J. SPOONER, 

First Lieutenant, U. S. V., 
BEN: PERLEY POORE, 

Major, M. V. M.,^ 



Remarks by Mr. Tucker, of Virginia. 

Mr. Speaker: The death of Hon. Henry B. Anthony, 
late Senator from the State of Rhode Island, who, by his 
long and distinguished public service and his private virtues, 
has entitled himself to this memorial consideration by the 
two Houses of Congress, recalls to our minds the relation 
of his mother Commonwealth to our Federal Union at the 
foundation of the Government and at the ordeal crisis of 
its history during the period in which he was her represent- 
ative in the Senate of the United States. 

' ' Rhode Island and the Providence Plantations ' ' constituted 
one of the original thirteen States which, under the loose 
league of the Continental Congress and afterward under the 
Articles of Confederation, fought together for the independ- 
ence of the American States. But when the convention of 
1787 met in Philadelphia to frame a new Constitution for 
these United States Rhode Island was conspicuous for her 
absence from its counsels, and signalized her jealousy of any 



94 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

change in the terms of the Federal Union by declining to 
supersede the old Articles of Confederation by the Constitu- 
tion of 1789. Eleven States only ratified that instrument, 
and without the concurrence of North Carolina and Rhode 
Island the new Government was launched upon its voyage 
under the new Constitution. For nearly a year North Caro- 
lina, and until June 16, 1790, Rhode Island, were not members 
of the new Union constructed upon the terms of the Constitu- 
tion of 1789. 

The accession of Rhode Island by the act of her convention 
dated May 29, 1790, was accompanied by declarations and 
demands of amendments, which evinced at once her jealousy 
for her rights as a State and her apprehension of danger from 
the powers delegated to the Federal Government. 

She entered the Union as the equal of every other State 
in the Senate, but with only one vote in the House of Rep- 
resentatives. Shorn of her equipollent power in the House, 
and fearful of its effects upon the rights of the States and 
the liberties of her people, she declared in like terms with 
Virginia, and in the same terms with New York, ' ' that the 
powers of Government may be reassumed by the people when- 
soever it shall become necessary to their happiness;" and 
she proposed amendments, which foreshadowed those subse- 
quently adopted within a few years after the adoption of the 
Constitution, by which the reserved rights of the States 
were more explicitly secured, and the delegated powers of the 
United States were more clearly defined. In all of these 
views, Virginia, the then largest State, and Rhode Island, the 
then smallest State, were wholly in accord. 

But in the next seventy years alienation of views and feel- 
ings were produced by diversity of interests, and from the 



REMARKS BY MR. TUCKER, OF VIRGINIA. gr 

cxistence of slavery in the South, to which the people of Rhode 
Island were strongly opposed. The tariff, the Missouri restric- 
tion, the relation of slavery to the Territories and to this 
District, engendered contentions which brought the Union to 
the crisis of i860, about which time Mr. Anthony entered the 
Senate of the United States. 

He was then about forty-five years of age and in the prime 
of his powers. A member of the Society of Friends, his 
political, personal, and religious sentiments made him a warm 
and earnest opponent of slavery. Originally a Whig and 
devoted adherent of Mr. Clay, he became a Republican when 
that party absorbed all opposition in the Northern States to 
the Democratic party. Of course he promoted the election of 
Mr. Lincoln in i860, and supported with zeal and consistency 
all the measures for the war upon the Confederate States. At 
the close of the war he sustained the reconstruction measures 
and the entire policy of the party to which he belonged until 
his death in September, 1884. 

It is difficult in any part of his political career for me to find 
a point of agreement between us. Without doubt there may 
have been questions on which we concurred, but they were 
few and on matters of minor importance. 

But this variance of opinions, and even upon such ques- 
tions as involved the two sections of the country in a civil 
war, cannot prevent me from offering my willing testimony 
to his talents, to the purity of his private character, to his 
incorruptible integrity as a Senator, to the sincerity of his 
convictions, to the patriotism of his intentions, and to the 
urbanity, dignity, and courtesy which distinguished his per- 
sonal and official intercourse. I knew him not intimately, but 
well enough to appreciate his intellect, to admire his public 



96 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

and private virtues, and to pay willing tribute to his patriotic 
devotion to what he thought was for the best interests of his 
country. 

And why should differences upon political questions stint 
our praise of men whose conscientious convictions were as 
pure and honest as our own? Why should the embers of civil 
strife kindle again a wall of fire between me and one who was 
from genuine patriotism an enemy during the four dreadful 
years of carnage and of devastation? Why shall not men of 
both sides ascend to the heights of a magnanimity of thought 
which will accredit to their one-time foe, but now their fellow- 
citizen and compatriot, as sincere convictions and as genuine 
purposes to maintain the right and uphold the truth as is 
claimed for themselves? Who professes infallibility in thought 
or action? What standard can we who are prone to err erect 
for pronouncing judgment on others ? If others are honest in 
opinion and purpose, who of us shall dare to condemn them 
for opinions contrary to our own ? 

For myself I declare in the solemn presence of the dead 
that I can and do forget all the diversities and hostilities of the 
past, and accord to him as much of virtue in purpose and of 
conscientiousness in action as I claim for those to whom he 
was hostile. Let the dead past be thus buried in the graves of 
the dead of both sections, and let the living practice that noble 
charity which accords to every other what each claims for 
himself, and we will in honorable recognition of each other's 
virtues and forbearance for each other's faults move on with 
mutual respect and affection to the achievement of the best 
results for our common country in the grand future of the 
American States. It is thus, and only thus, that we can secure 
to the future of our country a true and genuine peace between 



REMARKS BY MR. SPOOXER, OF RHODE ISLAND. 97 

the once hostile sections and make ns one in heart and purpose, 
as we are one in constitutional Union. For myself, in all 
sincerity, I rejoice in this opportunity to testify these catholic 
sentiments and purposes, by laying upon the tomb of the late 
Senator from Rhode Island this chaplet which Virginia weaves 
through my humble hands as her tribute of honor to the 
character, virtues, and fame of the lamented dead ! 



Remarks by Mr. Spooner, of Rhode Island. 

Mr. Speaker: The "Father of the Senate" is dead. A 
long life of usefulness, largely devoted to the public service, 
has closed. A career unexampled by that of any son of his 
native State and almost unparalleled in the history of the 
Republic has terminated. All that was mortal of Henry B. 
Anthony has been borne to its final resting place, reverently 
escorted by representatives of the National and State govern- 
ments and by the mourning people of Rhode Island, and 
tenderly committed to the soil from whence he sprang. 

His obsequies have been said; his virtues and attainments 
depicted, and his great services to his State and the nation 
fittingly portrayed. The General Assembly of the State of 
Rhode Island, the Board of Trade of the city of Providence, 
the Commandery of the Loyal Legion of this District, of which 
he was an honorary and an honored companion, the Senate of 
the United States, the public press, and the voice of the people 
have all recounted and recalled the incidents of his honorable 
life and pronounced their eulogies upon his private character 
and his distinguished public services. 

The utterances of this hour, devoted to the memory of the 

deceased Senator, properly supplement the many similar 
7 A 



98 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

tributes to his worth ; and, though evolving little perhaps not 
already said, may at least, while giving appropriate recogni- 
tion by this House of the public loss and the public sorrow, 
point again the lessons of a completed and well-spent life; 
and so, while appreciating the completeness of the tributes 
already paid, I cannot omit the opportunity offered to render 
this last testimonial of respect and regard for my late friend 
and colleague. 

It was Senator Anthony's fortune to live in stirring, 
troublous times, and to be a prominent participant in events 
which have largely contributed to the making of our history. 
From early manhood to almost the allotted life of man he 
may be said to have been constantly concerned in the direction 
of public affairs ; first as an influential editor and controller of 
public thought; then as governor of his State; and finally as 
United States Senator by five successive elections and during 
more than twenty-five years of continuous service, embracing 
the most eventful period of our national existence. 

Liberally educated and graduating at Brown University in 
1833, with great natural talents and no small degree of cultiva- 
tion and adaptability for the work, Mr. Anthony five years 
later became sole editor of the Providence Journal, in which 
capacity he established that newspaper among the leaders of 
New England opinion, and attained his earlier reputation as a 
graceful, vigorous writer, and a keen and discriminating critic 
of men and of public affairs. 

The period of his earlier editorial career was in those years 
which immediately preceded and included the so-called "Dorr 
rebellion," when wide and irreconcilable differences among the 
people of Rhode Island concerning their suffrage gave rise not 
only to bitter discussions and personal and party dissensions, 



REMARKS BY MR. SPOONER, OF RHODE ISLAND. 99 

but even to domestic strife and an appeal to arms, threatening 
the peace and the very existence of the State. In those days 
Mr. Anthony and his paper were the stern, uncompromising 
supporters of the so-called " Law-and-order " party of Rhode 
Island, urging the supremacy of existing law and of the gov- 
ernment organized under it until the same should be changed 
by and through the instrumentality and processes which that 
law recognized, and earnestly demanding the suppression by 
armed force of any armed resistance to what they claimed to be 
the only lawful government of the State. 

It was during that period that Mr. Anthony established his 
reputation as an editor and first illustrated the proportions of 
his ability and the grasp and insight of his intellect. Yet, 
bitterly as the conflict was waged between the "Dorrites" and 
the "Algerines," as the contending parties were called, and 
virulent as were many of the animosities and antagonisms 
aroused — families and former friends dividing in hostile 
arra y — an d although no man in Rhode Island more persist- 
ently and vigorously opposed Thomas W. Dorr and his associ- 
ates than did Henry B. Anthony, his peculiar characteristics, 
both of manner and method, are illustrated by the fact that 
many of his most hostile opponents in those days of internal 
strife subsequently became his faithful political adherents and 
closest personal friends. Indeed, within a few days I have read 
a letter recently written by an old "Dorrite" and a strong 
political opponent of Mr. Anthony in the "days of '42," who 
there speaks of the deceased Senator as one among his "ideals 
of great men. ' ' 

Largely by reason of the reputation earned and the political 
alliances with which he became associated during the years 
of and immediately succeeding the contest referred to, Mr. 



IOO LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

Anthony was in 1849 nominated by the Whig party of Rhode 
Island and elected governor of the State ; and in the following 
year re-elected to the same office, receiving upon this second 
election more than three-fonrths of all the ballots polled — a 
marked evidence of his popularity with the people and of their 
satisfaction with his discharge of his duties as chief magistrate 
during his preceding term. 

It is a peculiarity of Rhode Island politics, due I believe 
partly to the size of the State and partly to the characteristic 
independence of her people, that party lines are frequently 
broken for the expression of individual preferences, and votes 
often cast in direct antagonism to the nominal party affiliations 
of the voter; and Mr. Anthony, having perhaps to a greater 
extent than any other of his fellow-citizens a large following 
of personal friends, of varying shades of political opinion, 
captivated by his genial manners and won by his unquestioned 
integrity and the constancy of his friendship and his purpose, 
always found many stanch political supporters among those 
whose political alliances were usually widely at variance with 
his own; and, although originally a Whig and subsequently 
always a Republican, through the course of his long public 
life he enjoyed the continuous confidence and political support 
of many Rhode Island Democrats. 

A Rhode Islander by birth and descended from old Rhode 
Island stock; by nature, descent, instinct, and education satu- 
rated with the ideas, principles, and convictions peculiar to the 
people of his State; with an affection akin to admiration for 
her traditions, her history, and her ancient institutions, Mr. 
Anthony was for more than a quarter of a century recognized 
as that one of all her citizens best qualified to represent her 
interests, as was evinced by his repeated elections to serve her 



REMARKS BY MR. SPOONER, OF RHODE ISLAND. ioi 

during all that period in the United States Senate. His Sen- 
atorial career, extending from 1859 to the time of his death in 
September, 1884, spanned the lifetime of a generation. It saw 
the rise and overthrow of the great rebellion, the abolition of 
slavery, and the reconstruction of the Union, with constitu- 
tional liberty for black as well as white as a foundation- 
stone; it witnessed the restoration of financial safety and 
integrity and that wonderful expansion of American industries 
which wise legislation had fostered ; it beheld that marvelous 
growth and prosperity which, within that period of time, had 
nearly doubled the population of Rhode Island as well as the 
population of the United States, and had nearly tripled the 
value of their manufactured products; it saw the star of the 
Republic, which had seemed about to set in clouds and dark- 
ness, blazing again in the peaceful sky as a beacon-light to 
progress and to freedom! 

The long and faithful services of Senator Anthony in the 
national councils form a conspicuous part of the recorded his- 
tory of our country, and scarcely demand recital here. They 
constitute a record of high patriotism, fidelity to duty, and 
prudent statesmanship during those trying seasons of peril and 
of strife when numerous new and important questions affecting 
the safety and perpetuity of our institutions vexed the public 
mind and demanded Congressional action; they embrace the 
period following the war, when matters of scarcely less impor- 
tance to the welfare, peace, and prosperity of our people — the 
reconstruction of the Union, and questions of finance and 
traffic and taxation — called for that wisdom in legislation 
which he was so competent to exercise. Affable and courtly 
in manner, earnest yet prudent and conservative, diligent in 
the work committed to his charge, possessing rare gifts of 



102 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY B. ANTHONY. 

eloquence and persuasion as well as a logical mind united 
with unusual power of statement and analysis, Senator 
Anthony, though seldom indulging in formal speeches in the 
Senate and but infrequently engaged in debate upon the floor, 
was for many years a power in the affairs of Government and 
one of the most influential of Senators. As an industrious 
member and as chairman of important committees, and for four 
years as President pro tempore of the Senate, he has left the 
impress of his statesmanship and his patriotism upon much of 
the legislation enacted during his term of Senatorial service. 

If Mr. Anthony had not been called to public life, but had 
continued to actively occupy his early editorial chair, I believe 
I may safely assert that he would have attained both reputation 
and fame as a great editor. That was a career for which he 
was peculiarly adapted and most admirably equipped by his 
ability, his inclinations, and his attainments. 

Few men possessed a keener appreciation of men and mo- 
tives or better understood the course and the cause of the 
progress of affairs, or could express their views more clearly, 
forcibly, and attractively. A master of good English, some of 
the earlier as well as the more recent products of his pen are 
among the best examples of correct and graceful diction which 
our literature affords. He could be witty without being offen- 
sive ; humorous, and yet not gross ; severe, but still kindly and 
discriminating ; complimentary, yet not effusive ; vigorous, or 
sympathetic, or critical, or sad, or gay; and through all he 
wrote there ever ran a genial, human vein, with a captivating 
style of thought and expression; and though his wit and 
satire were keen and incisive, yet, like the scimeter of Saladin, 
they seldom left a ragged wound to fester long after their blows 
had been delivered. 



REMARKS BY MR. SPOOOER, OF RHODE ISLAND. 103 

But I will delay the House no longer. 

The ' ' Father of the Senate ' ' rests from his labors ; the voice 
of the master of eulogy is hushed ; and, with the memory of 
his glowing periods ringing in my ears, my simple tribute to 
his memory seems but discordant music. 

His fame is a part of our common history, interwoven with 
the fame of Lincoln and Grant, and Seward and Sumner, and 
of those other patriots, now largely of the past generation, who 
labored, or fought, or died that the Union and free institutions 
might live. 

Mr. Speaker, I move the adoption of the resolutions. 

The resolutions were unanimously adopted ; and in accord- 
ance therewith (at five o'clock and ten minutes p. m.) the 
House adjourned. 

O 








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